Team Building on Dangerous Ice: A Study in Collaborative Learning

399 T PAPER DESCRIBES HOW A TEAM of local river travelers and academic researchers documented the shifting ice conditions on an interior Alaskan river, learned from each other and from shared experiences on the ice, and created products that represented this learning. From 2004 to 2012, with funding from the National Science Foundation and led by Knut Kielland and William Schneider, the Dangerous Ice Project investigated winter ice conditions on the Tanana River in Interior Alaska. Like other rivers in Interior Alaska, the Tanana River exhibits changing winter ice conditions, from overflow to thinning ice and open leads. Travelers who get caught in these situations can be in trouble, ranging from the inconvenience of getting out of overflow to suffering the effects of exposure, or in the worst cases, drowning or freezing to death. The Tanana River and the sections chosen for intensive study were selected because we knew from personal experience that they were unpredictable and dangerous, and we wanted to understand them better. To accomplish this, we fostered a partnership between academics (social and natural scientists) and local river travelers and built a broad framework for interpreting natural phenomena and human understanding derived from a variety of perspectives. We use the term “local river travelers” to refer to members of the research team whose primary orientation and expertise comes from years of traveling in summer and winter on the river in the course of activities important to their culture and lifestyle. We also use the term “local knowledge,” but note similar terms such as “traditional knowledge” and “indigenous knowledge” because they all emphasize the theme of community-based knowledge of conditions and transmission of this information to community members over generations (Usher, 2000; Cruikshank, 2005; Ellis, 2005; Huntington, 2005; Bell and Harwood, 2012). Many of the scientific principles we chose to investigate came from questions raised by local river travelers (e.g., How can there be open water at sub-zero temperatures?) Questions of mutual interest to all team members provided a basis for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas and information. Shared experiences over many seasons, application of scientific principles, as well as group discussions and critiques of presentations, refined and reinforced learning across knowledge systems. Team Building on Dangerous Ice: A Study in Collaborative Learning