One of the things I love about the eclectic mix of projects that come our way from television series, to apps, to web first stories, to small businesses, to the arts, to educational initiatives, is that we are constantly learning and getting to explore the different worlds that we weave tales and build communities and storyworlds around. For the past couple of months that has been focused on polar bears, Canadian Eskimo Dogs, and northern living all revolving around the Northern Manitoba Town of Churchill, as we took over the social media storytelling and community building for the television series, Polar Bear Town. A project, might we add, that we have very much loved. If you are in Canada, you can watch the Series on OLN’s website or YouTube Channel. If you are in the UK or the US, stayed tuned, as it is coming to and the Smithsonian Channel soon!
As we are somewhat addicted to the North now, we decided to focus this year’s winter family activities around the North and Northern Living. Our apologies that this didn’t come out during the holidays, but between spending time with our families and the unexpected present of the holiday flu, we our sending out our holiday tradition as a New Year’s tradition this year.
When it comes to describing the North, words like cold, permafrost, snow, ice, wildlife, raw, land of the midnight sun (summer), no light (winter), and Northern Lights all come to mind. These are communities and cultures that are shaped by the cold and the snow and ice – after all, as with the wildlife, humans have had to adapt to cold weather living to survive in such environments.
In staying true to the North, the activities and experiments below are inspired by a community thats had to adapt to life in the cold, ice and snow.
Cold Weather Morphology
For many animals in and around the Arctic their bodies – and more specifically their fur and fat stores are designed for cold weather