Study Away: Sustainability in Sweden Blog

Tag: artandecology

Hej Hej from Arholma

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11 people sit on 2 rows within a small boat with the wood of the dock and water visible out of windows to either side
A photo of the second group of people snuggled together on the water taxi to Arholma, taken by our lovely captain.

(Post and Image provided by Cora Mullins)

After a tough farewell to the Väddö folk school, we drove about half an hour to catch a water taxi to Arholma, the island where we would spend Midsommar. The trip was about 15 minutes and took two trips to get us all there.

Once we settled in at the Arholma Nord, an old army barracks turned hotel, we explored the forested island, took naps, and grabbed a few drinks at the restaurant. We had a group dinner before heading to bed so we could be well rested for the morning Midsommar activities! More posts to come!

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Connecting Communities

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a piece of bark with Valkommen written in blue writing on it hangs with twine from a branch with forest trees in the background
A sign made from pine bark found in the woods, welcoming people to the forest.

(Post and Image provided by Cora Mullins)

We spent all day working on our art installation at the school forest in Singӧ. This included things like making concertinas, which are accordion-style books that splay out and display stories or information (our were about bats); finishing up a bat house, which can serve as a safe space for many endangered bat species in Sweden; as well as various other tasks that added to our project as a whole. After some final walk-throughs and test-runs, we shared some Lebanese takeout for dinner and prepared to welcome community members to our event.

Many community members showed up, including the principal of the folk school in Väddӧ, which was a very pleasant surprise! Our display had many interactive art pieces, allowing those who came out to contribute to the installation, as well as many things that were just meant to be felt and enjoyed. We had many thoughtful conversations with locals and enjoyed making (and sharing) a piece of art about the connection between our communities.

Creating this installation was very important to us all. It allowed us to make something larger than ourselves and then share it with others who care. We really appreciate everyone who came out to experience this project, as well as the Singӧ school for so graciously welcoming us into their community.

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Walking as Practice

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Students walking through a forest clearing with a dog that went home at the end.

(Post and Image provided Evan Meyer)

This week we began our art project in the Singö Skola forest. I was part of a group working on using yarn to represent the mycelium networks that connect the roots of the trees together. We want to emphasize the community that the trees make up as well as the community that we make together as people. Other groups are working on various other projects such as signs made of bark and a bat house.

After lunch, we took a walk with an artist named Anna Viola Hallberg, from the not-for-profit Björkö Konstnod or BKN. At the beginning of the walk, we picked up a straggler: a chocolate lab named Dracul. He stuck with our group the entire way through. We walked though fields, forests, and animal trails, finally reaching the tip of the island’s peninsula. A few of us even decided to go swim in the Baltic Sea. It was very cold!

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The Free Weekend Experience

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nine students stand having conversations around a wooden kitchen island with various dishes and drink options
Smorgasbord dinner in Väddö.

Post and Image provided by Jack Summers)

Hello friends and families!
This weekend was our scheduled free-time away from classes to explore Sweden as much as we wanted! A few of us decided to go back to Stockholm for a day to see more of the city. We spent a lot of our time eating good food and exploring beautiful streets in Gamla Stan (the old city), while also searching up and down for a good thrift store (we found a few…). Additionally on our way to dinner we stumbled upon a pro-Palestine protest, featuring Greta Thunberg! After we saw that, we had dinner at a fantastic ramen place, and then returned home to Väddö.

On our second free day we opted for a more laid back day in and around the folk school. A few of us visited a local farm for lunch. Later, for dinner we gathered as a group to have a Smorgasbord (traditional Swedish meal consisting of a variety of hot
and cold meats, hors d’oeuvres, etc.) dinner, which ended up being a huge success!

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Learning from Linnaeus

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a view of a botanical garden exhibit in Uppsala, Sweden with green plants, grass, trees, and gravel in the foreground
A unique part of the garden shaped like a tree, with the branches made of pea stone and the leaves made of plant specimens.

(Post and image provided by Grace Moeggenborg)

Today we had the amazing opportunity to explore the Uppsala University Botanical Garden (Linnaean Garden), a special piece of botanical and Swedish history! Founded in 1655 by a professor at Uppsala University, this garden was the first of its kind and was later redesigned and curated by Carl Linnaeus, an 18th century biologist and scientist who created the taxonomy system we now know. Each species was originally cultivated by Linnaeus and organized according to his logic. There are currently over 1,300 plant species in the garden!


We had plenty of time to meander through the garden, seeing peonies in bloom, a host of succulents, and a burgundy-leaved beech tree. We visited the Orangeri, where warm-weather plants are kept inside for the winter and even got to see still-thriving laurel trees in pots, planted by Linnaeus himself! Afterwards, we visited the greenhouse, which was filled with a variety of tropical and desert plants, including a few breathtaking species of carnivorous plants.


Due to the chilly weather, we decided to use the afternoon for exploration of Uppsala or time for homework in between our field trips!

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Trees and Landscapes in Gamla Uppsala

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a group of smiling students and teachers sitting in front of a large grassy mound with a wooden fence right behind them
Our group photo in front of the king’s mounds at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

(Post provided by Madison Olar, Image by Maddie Green)


Hej family and friends! Today was actually Sweden National Day and it was exciting to see all of the pride that Swedes have in their country. To start off the day we went to the Uppsala Common Garden site where we were met by rows of paper birch trees. These trees were lined up in order with trees taken from the north to the south of Sweden and were part of an experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to see first hand the effects of our changing climate and it was a good use of science communication.

Later we moved on to Gamla Uppsala where we ate our snacks that we picked up at a grocery store on the way there. First we looked through the museum which had a lot of information about the mounds located on the land and the people who built them. The area was an important religious site for the Swedes and it was later discovered that the mounds were graves of the rulers and those of the ruling class. This was found out after an archaeological dig in 1846. After looking through the museum we had a snack break at a small cafe and had our first Friday Fika before walking through the mounds. We walked around the mounds and were stunned by how beautiful they were with the long grass blowing through the wind and all of the wild flowers that dotted the mounds. Then we attempted to take the picture shown above, but the somewhat strong winds were not behaving, so we asked someone to take our picture.

After we got back to the hotel we had a group dinner where we got to talk about our day and have some time to connect with each other.

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Kungshamn-Morga Nature Preserve

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a class photo of teachers and students posed smiling in front of oak trees
Our group photo in front of the ancient oaks at Kungshamn-Morga

(Post provided by Chloe Hnilica, Image by Maddie Green)

Hej! Today, the group left Stockholm and traveled to Uppsala! After eating one last delicious breakfast from the Clarion Amaranten Hotel in Stockholm, we then travelled to the Kungshamn-Morga nature preserve. With boxed lunches and backpacks on, we ventured into the forest.

Immediately, I was stunned by the beautiful landscape full of large trees and stunning water views. Wandering through the forests of Sweden brought me back to Houghton, as the ecology and wildlife is very similar. As we travelled through the nature preserve, we were able to practice our “forest forensics” to identify different aspects of the forest and what happened to make them that way. We also practice our field sketching skills along the way.


My favorite part of the day had to be the surprise we got on the way into the forest. About a half mile in, we started noticing some lovely “cow pies”, as one would say. Mentioned beforehand, Tara said there might be some cows on the property because they are let free to roam throughout the day, but I really had no idea what to expect. We continued on until we turned a corner to see about 20 cows just relaxing on the beach!! Bathing in the sun, the cows were purely unbothered by the pack of us that wandered past. It was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.


We ended the night by traveling the rest of the way to Uppsala and starting our stay at the Scandic Uplandia hotel!

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Museum Day in Stockholm

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Aft of the SS Sankt Erik boat with the Swedish flag flying next to the pier
One of the boats from the National Maritime Museum that students toured today with their choice of museums to visit.

(Post and Image provided by Carter Debruyn)

Today our group got to check out many of the museums in Stockholm. We started off the day by spending our morning in the Swedish history museum as a full group. The museum walked us through the history of Sweden as well as about the lives of Vikings. From there the group split up for lunch, and we then went to various museums as smaller groups. I went to the Viking Museum, the Spirit Museum, and the museum pier of the National Maritime Museum.

At the museum pier there were three ships that we could learn about. The largest boat to tour was the Sankt Erik icebreaker, Sweden’s first icebreaker. It was launched in 1915, then converted from burning coal to burning oil in 1958. It has been a museum ship since 1980, but is still floating and is taken out to sea once a year. My favorite ship that we toured was the lightship Finngrundet. It serves as a lighthouse for places where it is too deep for a conventional lighthouse but still shallow or dangerous enough to warrant a lighthouse being there. In the case of the Finngrund, it was stationed above shallow sand banks where ships used to frequently run aground. It was very cool to see the inside of these big ships and to be able to go up the lighthouse tower in Finngrundet. The third ship was the Minesweeper M20. It was a minesweeping ship built in Stockholm and launched in 1941 for World War II. We were not able to tour this ship as much because it was being prepared to be taken on its yearly trip out to sea. It was nice to have time to check out any museum we wanted and very cool to be able to go aboard these ships!

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The Nobel Prize Museum

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Students and faculty standing in front of Nobel Prize Museum
Michigan Tech students and faculty standing on the steps in front of the Nobel Prize Museum.

We had a slow start this morning, letting students acclimate to the time change, and met up in the afternoon to take a short ride on the Metro and walk together to Gamla Stan!  There we had a guided group tour at the Nobel Prize Museum. Tucked into the old city’s historic Börshuset (formerly the Stock Exchange building), the museum felt both modern and timeless. It’s not huge, but it was packed with inspiring stories that make you think about what it means to change the world.

What many students expressed surprise at was how personal everything felt. Laureates have dedicated their lives to their work, but there were handwritten notes and personal items from other aspects of their lives, allowing visitors to relate to people they’ve only ever read about in textbooks. The museum does an excellent job of making complex ideas feel accessible.  Many students wrapped up their visit with a fika (coffee break) at the café in the museum and then posed for pictures with some of the medals – pretty surreal!

The Nobel Prize Museum was 100% worth a stop. It was a wonderful reminder of the incredible things people can accomplish. Afterwards, the students got to explore the shops and have dinner in Gamla Stan.  Later, we met up again in the evening to do a small painting project in a park surrounded by large oak and beech trees.   Overall, a perfect start for our first official day in class in Sweden 😊

(Post by Tara Bal)

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Arrived!

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View of underground subway with painted flowers on the walls and ceilings in blue and white.
The subway in central Stockholm

(Post by Maddie Green)

Arriving in Sweden was a whirlwind of planes, layovers, delays, flight transfers, and a whole lot of steps walking around airports and exploring the city of Stockholm. Throughout the day on June 1 students arrived in the Stockholm airport, ARN, and then boarded the Arlanda express, a high-speed train to get to our hotel. There are many sights to see all over the city from the cobbled streets to boats docked on the many canals crisscrossing the archipelago. Along every street and in every Resturang conversations in all different languages can be heard. There are so many new sights, sounds, and experiences to be had it is difficult to feel tired, even after the long hours and very little sleep. Even though we’ve had just a taste of the new city so far the food has been exciting and delicious. Pictured above is the underground of the T-Centralen. We are so excited to continue exploring the city and leaning more about the culture and environment around us. 

Eight smiling students eating dinner together
One of our first meals at a local Italian restaurant.
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