In a reflective piece for the Illinois News Bureau’s “In My Own Words” series, Professor Ellen Buckley of Earth Science and Environmental Change recounts the surreal and powerful experience of teaching sea ice science while standing directly on the frozen Arctic Ocean in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. As part of a field trip for local eighth graders, Buckley not only assisted with hands-on research, like drilling ice cores and deploying scientific instruments, but also brought her graduate students at the University of Illinois along virtually through Zoom, sharing the living, breathing Arctic in real time from 3,000 miles away.
Buckley, a remote sensing scientist by training, describes how the trip transformed her understanding of sea ice from abstract satellite imagery to a vibrant, tangible landscape shaped by science, culture, and community. Trading terminology and knowledge with local students—melding climate science with Indigenous perspectives—she reflects on the ice as more than data points: it's a lived environment full of tradition, resilience, and even laughter. Now, when she views satellite images, she sees not just ice pixels, but the human stories etched across them.