Snow School

During the winters of 2018, 2019 and 2020, I volunteered as a field instructor for a unique and immersive outdoor science program called Snow School.

At snow school, middle school science classes from rural and tribal communities in northwest Washington state came to the top of Mt. Baker Ski Area for a field day of snow science and fun.

As a field instructor, I taught concise 20 minute lessons about snow algae and led the students through a sample collection exercise, in which they collected real data for a research study. The snow surface samples our students collected were then transported to a lab at Western Washington University, where researchers studied snow algae population genetics in the North Cascades and around the world as part of the Living Snow Project.