Recently in Daily Dilemma Category

We could use some feedback from you. Now that Project Polar Bear is in its final week, we'd like to know what your favorite learning experience was. Which Animal of the Arctic was your favorite? Please explain why. Was there anything you found interesting in Notes from the Trail or Dog of the Day?

Today we dogsled from the Churchill Northern Studies Center into the town of Churchill. In Churchill there are many interesting things to see and do. We will leave it up to you to figure out what we should do.

Here are the options . . . One option is a museum full of Inuit artifacts. This would be a great option to learn about the Inuit culture and history. The second option is the Prince of Wales Fort, which is at the mouth of the Churchill River. We could take a tour of the fort to learn about the settlement of the town and history of the fur trade in the area. The third option is to visit a very large kennel of Canadian Inuit sled dogs. The Wintergreen dogs live in a large kennel, but this one is apparently the largest kennel of Canadian Inuit dogs in the world, with about 150 dogs.

The choice is up to you! Please tell us what you would like to learn about. Be sure to include your reasons.

We were unable to update the website yesterday, because we are having trouble with battery power. In order to do the update, we need our computer, satellite phone, camera, and video camera batteries to function. The cold weather is tough on batteries. If we try to use them when they are cold, the batteries basically have low or no power. This means that we need to warm them up before we can use them. We need your help to figure out how to keep our batteries warm! This is very important, because the warmer we can keep our batteries, the more information we can share with you! Please send us your suggestions.

4/6 Daily Dilemma

What would you like to learn about this week? It is up to you to pick a topic. Don't forget to state your reasons for picking that topic.

1. The history of northern Manitoba, including Churchill and Hudson Bay.

2. Animal evidence that we're finding along the trail.

3. Details about traveling by dogsled.

We will load dogs, gear, sleds, and people onto the train in Thompson at 7 pm. The train we are riding is called the Tundra Train. Its route is 800 miles and it runs from Winnepeg to Churchill. The Tundra Train has been running since 1929. We recently found out that the Tundra Train's average speed is 28 miles per hour. It is also fairly common for the train to be running behind schedule. Could you do some research about the Tundra Train to help us figure out why this train travels so slowly?

Thank you for all of our thoughtful suggestions for things we should bring and when we should start heading north. Many of the items that you have suggested will be packed in our sleds and loaded onto the truck this afternoon.

With your help we have decided to leave at 5 AM tomorrow morning. Originally we had planned to leave around 10 AM, but so many students suggested that we leave earlier so we are taking your advice and leaving before dawn tomorrow. Needless to say we are all very excited to head north.

With such a long drive ahead of us we need to figure out how we should break up the drive. Can you help us come up with a schedule for how often we should stop to let the dogs and the people stretch their legs? We also need to figure out a fair way to break up the driving. How often should we switch drivers? Can you use a website like mapquest to help us figure out how long it will take us to drive from Ely, MN to Thompson, MB and help us find some cities along the way where we can stop and take breaks?

Thanks for all your help and advice!

Dave and the rest of the team.

We will be driving from Ely, Minnesota to Thompson, Manitoba. We need to catch a train in Thompson on Friday evening at 7 pm. The total distance between Ely and Thompson is about 910 miles. We have also noticed that the weather forecast does not look very good for the next couple of days-- there is a possibility of getting a foot of snow! Can you calculate how long it will take us to get to Thompson if we drive an average of 40 miles per hour? How soon could we get to Thompson if we drove an average of 30 miles per hour? How about 50 miles per hour?

Based on your calculations, when do you think we should leave Ely? Are there any other factors we should consider for the drive?

Preparation for any expedition or trip is very important. We want to make sure that we have everything that we might possibly need. Can you think of necessary items that we should be sure to bring? Keep in mind that we will be camping and it will be cold in Hudson Bay.

When you are packing for a vacation, what do you bring with you? What are two items that you absolutely can't leave home without?