It was in the Peace Corps that Field began to realize education and science is the ideal combination. In Senegal, she taught environmental education, as well as sustainable agriculture.
Senegal RPCV Jennifer Field to study glacier melting, deposits and flooding of Iceland's massive ice sheets
Educator embarks on Icelandic expedition
By Jenna Wolf / Daily News Correspondent
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Jennifer Field, a science teacher at Nipmuc Regional High School in Upton, is no stranger to travel, research and the ability to mesh the two with education.
After spending two years after college graduation in Senegal in West Africa with the Peace Corps program, she hoped to "bring education into the sciences." About a decade later, she's now one of 43 educators around the world who received a private grant to study glacier melting, deposits and flooding of Iceland's massive ice sheets.
Field will team up with 10 other educators and specialists to collect data she hopes will help students realize "that data doesn't actually always mean one thing."
"I felt it was the perfect opportunity for research and travel," said Field, 34, a Marlborough resident.
On July 18, she will head to a bunk house in Reykjavik, Iceland. "We originally thought we'd be staying in tents," she quipped. With weather mostly rainy, she is relieved to hear the accommodations are a bit more upscale.
The average temperature in Reykjavik this month is between 40 and 60 degrees with "plenty of rain," Field said. "(Reykjavik) is known as the rain capital of ice. I guess I don't mind the rain."
The Earthwatch Institute, an international nonprofit group, supports scientific field research on almost every continent, according to its Web site. It sponsors more than 125 projects in 49 countries and 15 U.S. states. It includes fellowships for teachers and students.
Field's project in Iceland includes four Americans, including another teacher from Hingham, as well as four fellows from England and one from France. Field said, however, she is lucky because some of the volunteers have to pay their own way. She will receive a $3,000 grant from the Gund Foundation, a Cleveland based nonprofit that funds environmental education projects, which covers her room and board. A family friend donated money for her transportation to and from Iceland.
Field found out about the fellowship through an acquaintance and thought it would be the best chance to bring back research to teach her students. She said her love of science developed "a long time ago," at a vocational agriculture high school in Connecticut. She graduated in 1993 from the University of Maine at Orono with a degree in natural resources after completing various internships with national parks during college.
But it was in the Peace Corps that Field began to realize education and science is the ideal combination. In Senegal, she taught environmental education, as well as sustainable agriculture. She then received a master's degree in education at Emmanuel College in 2003.
This will be Field's third year teaching science at Nipmuc, and she says the fellowship couldn't come at a better time.
This fall, her geology class will focus on glaciers, and she hopes to smoothly integrate her new lesson plan into the curriculum. As part of the fellowship, Field must develop a lesson plan based on the research she conducts. She will keep a daily journal and create a packet upon her return to Upton on Aug. 1.
For now, Field is excited about the research and only slightly less optimistic about the weather and food. An Icelandic delicacy is shark, buried deep beneath the ground for months to ferment. Field is unsure whether she will try it.
"I really don't know about the shark," she said apprehensively. "Maybe I will try it. I pretty much will eat whatever after two years of eating strange things in Africa."
She said the most important thing is the Icelandic mission is "ongoing." Field hopes to help contribute to uncovering the mysteries of the melting glaciers and the lasting effects they have on the environment and landscapes, even in places like New England.
