A Grand Valley State University Honors class will bring the Arctic to campus on Friday as it hosts an exhibition of games found within indigenous cultures in the Arctic region for its second year.

Students from the Honors junior seminar class “In Search of Meaning of Games in Life: A Journey to the Circumpolar World” will demonstrate and teach between 15 and 20 different games to students and the surrounding community. Professor John Kilbourne, of the Movement Science department, teaches the class and will be running the event.

“We learn by doing,” Kilbourne said. “I can’t teach about games and not have students involved.”

Chloe Zdybel is a student in the class that will host the games. She and her classmates will be working to set up and run a variety of Arctic jumping games. These games include jump rope, kneel jump and sledge-jump.

“Traditionally, the sledge-jump involves jumping over wooden hurdles covered in caribou hides and blankets,” Zdybel said. In the kneel jump, participants start on their knees and jump as far forward onto their feet as they can.

“I want to go back and learn about the deeper meaning of games, that they are linked to survival and rehearsal skills,” Kilbourne said. “They are physically challenging and really fun.”

Other games at the exhibition will include the musk ox wrestle, harpooning, blanket toss and high kick. Students will also have traditional dolls, board games and games using animal bones.

“Some of the games are ones that (Kilbourne) talked about in class,” said Jordan Luberto, another student involved. “We had to look up others online and watch videos.”

The two different cultures represented at the event are the Inuit and Sami cultures. The Inuit are indigenous to the Arctic region of Canada, and the Sami are native to Scandinavia. These cultures are the ones that will be represented because they are the two Kilbourne has centered his class around.

Along with the games, live reindeer provided by GG Reindeer Farm in Caledonia, Mich. will be present, as reindeer racing is a part of Sami culture, Kilbourne said.

The event was funded through a collaborative effort by the Honors College, Student Services and a grant from the Padnos International Center.

The exhibition of the Arctic games will be held on Nov. 22 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. near the Cook Carillon Clock Tower on the Allendale campus. There is no cost to participate in the games.

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