SKYPE Gardens

The trip to Nunavut offered many great experiences for the students that participated - check out the photos on the Flickr Photostream on the right.  We knew this would be the case before we departed, so we were determined to find a way to share it with elementary students who couldn't join us on the trip.  To bring them along (without sneaking them into our luggage of course) we proposed a SKYPE broadcast where our students would share their experiences with classes down south.  This proved to be an easy sell and soon enough we had eight schools signed up.

Every morning our students rose early, rubbed the sleep from their eyes and readied for an onslaught of questions from excited elementary kids.  Many were curious on the food we ate (lots of caribou), what the weather was like (snowy and cold), what the people were like (fantastic and friendly), what the trip was like getting there (long and full of delays) and what sports they play in the north (hockey, soccer, basketball and everything we play in the south plus Arctic Games - more on that later).   SKYPE worked incredibly well.  The picture and sound was clear and made the elementary kids feel they were in Cambridge Bay.

The added bonus to the broadcasts was when the students from Cambridge Bay joined Stratford Northwestern kids.  The students from north brought to the SKYPE experience real knowledge from the north.  They spoke of their lives and demonstrated their Arctic Games skills.  Thank-you to all the elementary classes, Nunavut and Stratford students who participated in the broadcasts.

After such a successful SKYPE experience, we didn’t want to leave Nunavut without setting up further.  Since we’re all about food, we decided to marry the two.  Beginning in the New Year we’ll have SKYPE Gardens running.  Two classes, one south and one north will have windowsill vegetable gardens that will be their link.  They will share the experience, stories and recipes all the while developing friendships from afar.  The northern schools will have some help from a grow light. 

We have a couple of schools ready to go.  If anyone else is interested please let us know.  We’ll help fund the project and organize twins. 

The Screaming Avocados