2026 Experiential Academic Elective: Iceland Science

Colorado Academy’s summer 2026 Experiential Academic Elective took students and faculty to Iceland, a world leader in sustainability, to learn about the country’s pioneering success in exploiting renewable energy sources and to seek answers to their own research questions about the climate and environment of the island nation.

This credit-granting summer course followed 2025’s inaugural experiential elective, which focused on the landscape and cultures of New Mexico and investigated their influence on the work of Georgia O’Keeffe, whose iconic paintings completed at Ghost Ranch made the region famous.

According to Science Instructor and Department Chair Amanda Zranchev, Iceland is a prime location for the study of climate change and sustainability. “Today, virtually all of Iceland’s energy comes from hydroelectric and geothermal sources, which wasn’t the case just a few decades ago.” 

The students also completed an environmental impact statement about the journey itself—the round-trip overseas flights as well as their bus travel, dining, and hotel stays across the country. Says Zranchev, “Ironically, they were able to study the very thing we were contributing to—our carbon footprint and local ecological impact on Iceland.”

The group of Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Grade students met in the days before their June 10 departure to pack and test the equipment they’d use to record environmental data—such as portable barometers, anemometers, and water and soil sampling kits—and to fine-tune their plans for their research in country. 

One group aimed to study the effects of Iceland’s volcano-fueled geothermal activity on air quality by using a device to measure potentially harmful particulates. Another wanted to fact-check the widely held belief that Iceland’s glacial waters are safe for consumption without any sort of filtration. Explained Ninth Grader Layla Zisler, “If there’s already a natural filtering system at work, then Iceland doesn’t have to work as hard to clean the water, which helps the environment. On the other hand, if the glacial sources aren’t actually clean, then people need to be aware so they can avoid health issues.”

Of his group’s research focus, on the differences between glacier-fed and spring-fed bodies of water, Tenth Grader Jackson Hersch noted, “If the lakes or streams that are fed by glaciers have a lot of lead or other dangerous chemicals in them, then that could show us another effect of climate change.” The Ninth Grade team of Ollie Dias and Beckett Maron were also planning to investigate humans’ impact on climate, by analyzing how cities impact air and water quality. 

Once outside of their familiar Upper School science labs and across the ocean in another country, Zranchev observes, “These students got to do real science in the field—which comes with: What do I do when my data is bad or things go wrong? Working on the fly and with limited resources, they really were able to turn around some impressive results.”

When they returned after their week’s worth of travel and research, the trip participants reconvened at CA to complete the presentation posters they created to display their Iceland data before sharing their results with visiting family members.

Ninth Grade traveler Dawson Craig explained, “I came into this trip thinking of Iceland as just this place on the edge of the Earth, but I learned there’s so many cool things there that I wouldn’t have even thought I could find out about.” Fellow researcher Vaughn Miller added, “Learning all about a completely different country and getting such real-time, in-the-moment experience with recording data and making conclusions, even navigating the challenges—it was really eye-opening.”

For Tenth Grader Holly Fergason, there was much more to bring home after visiting Iceland with the group.

“I made a lot of really great friends that I don’t think I would have talked to as much outside of this kind of trip, where we were in such close proximity. There are just so many awesome, bright people at CA who are interested in science.”

Fellow Tenth Grader Hannah Nguyen reported that though she had expected the work-focused trip to be stressful, “When we were actually there, it felt like the perfect amount of research, along with exploring what was going on around the country. Iceland has such a diverse landscape, where you can see volcanoes, waterfalls, glaciers, and the ocean all in one region. So from a scientific perspective, it was perfect: We were able to grab data from many different ecosystems to see the differences.”

Ninth Grade researcher Nico Lish, who teamed with Nguyen and Eleventh Grader Hallie Solomon to look at how volcanic activity could affect soil composition, underscored, “While our data may not have been totally conclusive, one thing was clear: Iceland is gorgeous.”

Wrapping up the culminating poster presentation, trip co-leader and Science Instructor Sydney Finkbohner told students and their families, “We are so proud of all of you: You really took this experience seriously, and it shows in the excellent work you did in just a few short days.”