Students on Ice, Day 3: Children of the sea

At 37, this Iqaluit athlete and educator is one of the most enthusiastic big kids on the Students on Ice trip, earning himself the nickname “Johnny Awesome.” But really, we’re all wide-eyed kids on this adventure, experiencing places, flavours and moments for the first time, many times a day. Some of them miss pizza and burgers. Some miss country food – the traditional foods of the North (Sighting seals along the rocky shore, one of the girls sighed wistfully. “This is making me hungry,” she said).

Sara and Johnny (c)WWF-Canada
Today’s experiential learning approach included climbing to the top of a volcano crater, and a visit to the Icelandic Seal Centre at Selasetur Islands. But the highlight of my day was this simple farm.

After lunch, seeing that we were clearly obsessed with the unusually small breed of horse, our hosts invited us through the barn and into the yard to meet 60 of these beautiful, kind creatures. Learning doesn’t get more hands-on than this. [videos!]Soon, I am grinning myself, feeding grass to four pushy adults while foals watch cautiously nearby.

One student tell us that she’s never seen or touched a real horse before. Another saw an ocean for the first time today. Tomorrow, he will board a ship with all of us, and we will continue to grow up together.