Tava

Tava standing in front of Indian River (Kaasda Heén) where she has observed changes in salmon runs as well as large rain events leading to flooding. Around her were huckleberry bushes which she has also seen change in abundance and timing.

I was thinking of the river because it reminds me of a lot about a) what it was like being forced on hikes as a child here, and b) because I feel like it represents a lot about the salmon runs and our river ecosystems and rainfall. And because there are huckleberries.

What changes have you noticed here?

Obviously we've seen differences in weather, differences in fish habitat and disruption of river systems, stuff like that, all due to climate change, due to human impact -- on river systems and habitat as a whole, but also right here in Indian River. Increased rainfall sometimes, especially last summer, [which] was ridiculously wet -- and we had an exceptional amount of rainfall this year -- but also difference in weather patterns: dry spells and then lots of rain that changes the way the river runs...

How do you feel about those changes?

I think -- I mean it's sad to watch sometimes -- everything is so gorgeous and amazing and I love it here, but sometimes I do feel like things are disintegrating in a way that I wish they weren't. Because obviously I want other people to experience it the same way I've been able to. And I think that the way I had a childhood and the way I grew up in this exact ecosystem was really impactful for me, and it makes me sad that in the future that might not be possible.

I remember as a kid we'd do stuff like stream team where we'd go and watch the fish and we'd go and watch bears in the river, and we would watch the schools of fish swarm and learn about how each tree that fell made an ecosystem.

I feel like there's just so much happening in one place that by disrupting that it sets things off kilter, and therefore I feel like it can wreck like the sense of energy you get from this place... I feel like it's too big to describe in one or two things that might change. It's a whole system.

What do you remember learning in school about those changes?

I remember we would go up -- especially in elementary school -- on field trips and we'd go to different rivers and we'd look at how landslides affected them -- look at how trees affected them. I remember we would go on forestry field trips and go out to Starrigavan and look at stuff, and other times we'd go out and look at the fish. I remember that being a very central part of our education -- was going out and looking at the rivers and the ocean around us. I assume that doesn't happen other places, and it felt very special to being from Alaska and being from Southeast Alaska also.

What do you remember learning about those things in middle and high school?

Not half as much, certainly. Things standardized the further into our education we got. The further away from elementary school we went, the more it was a specific curriculum that wasn't developed to where we are. And I think that's kind of sad. I mean we are obviously in these completely extraordinary locations that can give us a lot of information, and the fact that we didn't use those half as much as we did in elementary school and when we were younger is kind of absurd.

What do you wish you would've learned?

I feel like we learned a lot about the basics of stream ecosystems and stuff like that -- I'm talking about that specifically because we're right here [at Indian River], but I feel like obviously there's so much more, and that was such an impactful part of our young education that I feel like they could've built on that. Obviously they're doing stuff at much higher levels than elementary level third grade level pH tests.

I feel like that's a really good way to develop interest in people going into sciences. Like as a kid I wanted to be a scientist for a little while... and I feel like as I moved up through the system of standardizing that I kind of lost some of my interest in it because it wasn't half as fun and it wasn't half as interesting.

And I feel like they really could've built up more interest, more engagement, and more possibilities by at least incorporating some of what we live in. And I know there's marine bio classes -- I never took marine bio; I've heard it's really interesting. But you know I just felt like our core science classes weren't interesting. Especially the freshman and sophomore levels. Those were particularly bad.

Do you remember learning about climate change in other classes?

Not really, I don't think so. Not that I remember. I think it was glazed over pretty well in our high school.

Do you wish you learned more about how climate change would affect things other than our ecosystems?

Yeah. I mean I feel like I did pretty well for myself, but obviously that's not possible -- I mean that just stifles people.

Your school should be teaching you these things. You shouldn't have to go out and look for them on your own, which I think it what lots of the people who do climate activism here in town have to do, especially young people. We do it by ourselves, or we do it with other people from around town who know about that or who will teach you, but it's not really through the school system. And I do wish -- I feel like it could be a more universal experience, and a more universal topic in Sitka if it had been taught -- if it had been something that we could learn as a whole group because it makes it super selective who figures out this is a problem when only certain people have access to that information.

Do you have any anxiety about how your future will be affected by climate change?

Yeah, I think so. I mean right now I am moving to Minnesota, so I'm mostly worried about it being freezing cold and I don't think climate change is going to change that in the next four years, so I'm more worried about here and places that I have seen change so far. And working in the future, or if I come back here, or if I go somewhere else in the world that's super affected -- I mean obviously everywhere is super affected by this -- yeah I worry about it often. I think that it's gonna be something that we all deal with -- young people deal with for the rest of our lives I think. In making decisions about where we can live, where we work, what we do because I think there's just going to be a lot of shifting happening in the workforce and across the world, and how we have to combat this because we're already in such a dire situation.

Tava wants:

Place-based and hands-on education throughout middle and high school

STEAM, Scientists in the School, RASOR, GLOBE, and Aquaculture Semester (Programs #1, 2, 3, 4, 6) all incorporate place-based and hands-on lessons into classes for high school or middle school students. As Tava said, opportunities like the ones included in these programs engage students and interest them in further science opportunities.

AK-CSI, Wilderness Expeditions for Young Women, JIRP (Summer Opportunities #1, 3, 4) give students the opportunity to collect data and learn about environments around them. They also connect them to potential careers in STEM fields.

Weather Stations, TROP ICSU, Seek, and Place-Based Education Guide (Resources #1, 2, 3, 6) help teachers utilize the local environment in their lessons.

Climate change education in multiple topics, taught to everyone

STEAM, Scientists in the School, and GLOBE (Programs #1, 2, 4) incorporate climate change education into regular school classes in different contexts.

TROP ICSU, Project Drawdown, and Weather Stations (Resources #1-4) are all resources to help teachers incorporate climate change into their classes in many different subject areas. Climate change is such a broad and important issue that affects so many topics that it needs to be taught in many different contexts, many times.