My Finland Fulbright January-April 2017. Exploring a Sustainability Mindset in Finnish Education: The "lake district"- school visits, Fulbright Forum, and a day in Tampere

I spent a week in mid March in south central Finland, an area that is called "the lake district". Finland has over 60,000 lakes, and this area of Finland contains a very large number of them. Many Finns have summer cabins here, and come during the summer months to relax, take sauna, fish, paddle, and sleep in. My reason for coming to this area included some school visits and to give a talk at a Fulbright Forum in Jyvaskyla.

Men ice fishing at a Jyvasjarvi Lake in Jyvaskyla. You can see the ice augers they use to drill a hole, then they jig with a small lure and catch dozens of small herring-sized fish. Notice in the back the ice skating track that goes all around the lake.

My school visits were in the small "village" of Hankasalmi, about an hour by bus from the city of Jyvaskyla. The first day there I arrived too late to see the school, so spent the day exploring Revontuli where my hotel was. Revontuli is actually a resort, with golf course and cabin rentals during the summer months, but during the winter it is more like a sleepy hotel and pretty much the only place to stay in the area. Being right on a lake, though, it made for a pleasant and relaxing stay. I took a long walk out on the still frozen lake. We (fellow Fulbrighter Nat Woodruff and myself) stayed two days there, and on the second day we were given the chance to take a sauna near the lake and do the famous Finnish Ice Swimming! I was very excited to do this, since it has been on my Finland "to do list" since the beginning, so I knew I could not pass up the chance. It was, in a word, awesome!! I started out in the sauna and got really hot internally, and then walked quickly to the lake where a hole in the ice was cut out and maintained. The water was about 4deg C, just above freezing, by far the coldest water I have ever swam in (including the Arctic ocean near Barrow Alaska), and intensely biting when you get in. After about 5-10 seconds I had all I could take and climbed the ladder out. The crazy thing was, about 20 seconds after getting out, I felt this rapid flush of internal heat rise to the surface of my skin, and it lasted for some time ( I did not feel the need to dash back into the sauna right away). Both Nat and I did 3 cycles of sauna and lake swim until we both felt pretty much relaxed to the point of being a jellyfish. I've asked many Finns about the ice swimming, and the majority of people I talk to (not all, some say they have no interest in such a thing) say they enjoy this and consider it a way of maintaining health in body and spirit. As for me, I see the attraction and would definitely do it again if given the chance.

Out on a frozen lake near Revontouli

Rather poor quality image, but yes this is me swimming in an ice hole.

The sauna near the lake

My school visit the next day was great. I was hosted by Heli Ikonen and her team of 1-3rd graders and teachers. They were doing a collaborative unit on water, and the kids (all three grades together) rotated through a series of 5 or 6 classroom "stations" where they did activities related to water cycle, buoyancy, snow sculptures, water cohesion, and an art project related to rain. We started the day with the whole group getting together to talk over the process and they sang a "water song". They were adorable, and really enjoyed the activities. We had a lunch together and played many tag games outside during their recess time. They were particularly interested rock-paper-scissors and were quick to challenge me at every opportunity. It was great fun.

Students being prepared for the day's water activities

Working with kids on water cohesion. How many drops can they get to fill the size of the blue dot?

Another round of rock-paper-scissors!

By the middle of the week it was time to head into Jyvaskyla, where all the Fulbrighters met to share our projects (at this point) at a conference. It was great to get all 8 of us together, and we were joined by about 20 other Fulbright scholars and students all doing various research projects on topics ranging from the environment to music, criminal law, photography, genetics, and more. The conference was two days of sharing our work and fielding questions and exchanging ideas. It was a bit sad at the end since I will be leaving soon and this will be my last time to see the other 6 US Fulbright teachers (Nat excluded, since he and I both live in Helsinki). Janet joined me at the end of the conference and she and I spent one day enjoying Jyvaskyla and a second day in Tampere an hour to the south by train. Emma, for her part, decided that she would rather stay in Helsinki so she arranged to stay with a school friend and enjoyed her time doing that.