Sunday, April 4, 2010
Blog Review
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Module IX...The Crysphere: Terrestrial Ice
I had to give the "A Drop in the Bucket" a try...here are my answers, correct answers in parenthesis (it's obvious that I did not peek)... __928___ drops are in the oceans and inland seas (972)
__45___ drops are in glaciers (21)
__20___ drops are in ground water and soil moisture (6)
__2___ drops are in the atmosphere (<1)
__885___snow flakes in Antarctica (914) an eye popper for me!
__86___snow flakes in Greenland (79)
__20___snow flakes in N. America (3)
__3___snow flakes in Alaska (1)
__4___snow flakes are in Asia (2)
__2___snow flakes in S. America, Europe, Africa, New Zealand and Irian Jaya (<1)
1000 snow flakes total...missed the numbers again but have come to realize that as a lifelong learner, the more surprises, the greater the fulfillment! I have also realized that about the time that I retire is when I will have the most science knowledge and probably be at the top of my teaching game!
What a great activity...for me, a real test as to what I don't know! I am anxious to try this Monday with my students (it's now Thursday and after testing my students on this, they were as surprised as I was at the numbers)...cool thought activity with an important underlying concept. This has real "wow factor" as to how much fresh water is solidified in Antarctica! A few of the reasons that Antarctica is so cold is because of it's elevation (it has a higher average elevation than any other continent), albedo...mostly covered by ice and snow so infrared radiation reflection is high, extremely dry...a by product of cold air (the colder the air, the less moisture it can hold), it is surrounded by ocean so the interior of the continent does not have the moderating influence (specific heat capacity) of water and among other reasons, the angle of the sunlight is such that very few photons fall onto a large area, even in summer(December)...the same concept as northern Alaska in the summer(June).
Explain
If you are looking for Antarctica data give Discovering Antarctica teachers area, along with the rest of the site, a look as it has a wealth of information about the continent. Another site with cool facts and pictures is coolantarctica! Our Alaska students can learn a lot from the study of climate below the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle, from a temperature standpoint, is a mirror image of our southern most continent...global and localized climate change have and will effect both poles in similar ways.
The Big Melt--Global Warming is an interesting resource that discusses what global warming is, how the greenhouse effect works and data that seems to be science based. There are also many links on the page that add to education of climate change.
"Documenting Glacial Change" from Teachers Domain was so impressive for me that I had to place the picture in my blog. What an impressive/convincing way to show what has happened to some of Alaska's glaciers over the past few decades! You tube has a video called Take AIM at Climate Change...I am not much for rapping but this puts across a great message..."AIM" stands for Adapt, Innovate, Mitigate!
Another well done video on you tube is done by NASA... "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOAFp0fZzDo" speaks to nearly all of the concepts discussed in this course...well worth a look!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Module VIII...The Cryosphere: Arctic Sea Ice
The concept of "albedo" is evident here in Alaska in March (which, by the way is the month that "grinds" on me the most). The sun shines, it is higher in the sky, but the snow just hangs around! The gorgeous sunshine and thermal energy, just reflects off of the snow and goes right back into space...before moving up here I would plant my tomatoes in March!
This module and most of this course contains many activities that I have used or still use in my physical science, physics and geology courses. It has been a great refresher for me as to the activities that I have left out the last few years, along with providing new ones for the future. The activity involving the black and white container, with the heat lamp, is a classic exercise to show how black (and other dark colored objects) are better absorbers (the reason something is black is because it absorbs all light, thus nothing is reflected) and emitters of infrared radiation (thermal energy).
The animation to the right shows the concept called "Black Body Radiation". It represents a theoretical body that absorbs ALL of the light that enters it, when reality shows us that 100% absorption just does not exist in nature. The link above is worth a closer look if you are a physics teacher...it contains a number of "high level" topics of discussion with graphs that are nicely done!
This animation also helps us to understand what is going within an eye when we see the "deer (or other critter) in the headlights"!
I like to use the wood stove as an example when discussing the concept of thermal energy absorption and emission. (It is also a great way to introduce the three forms of thermal energy transfer...conduction, convection and radiation.) Other than stoves that are used as a decoration (like the one on the left), wood stoves are black...inside and out! Two of the same model of stove, give me the black one if I am using it to warm the air in a room!
Extend:
Consider how the lack of sea ice could change the way everyone on the planet lives, let alone those who rely on it! The pictures above are 1979 and 2003 polar ice cap images...quite dramatic difference!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Module VII...Earth's Changing Climate
A fun and interesting site for introducing the solar system, along with some of our neighboring extra solar system objects is found in a history channel interactive. Note that several of the elements most commonly found in the solar system are hydrogen, helium, carbon and nitrogen.
I like to use Stephen Hawking's Universe with my physics students...this you tube video is a great introduction to Hawking's views...Hawking is attempting to find the "theory of everything" by combining Relativity with Quantum Mechanics. It also includes some of Einstein's work.
This you tube video describes how our solar system came to be from just a cloud of gas and dust. Combine nebula dust and gas with supernovae remnants, along with gravity, then fusion at the center of the rotating "cloud" and a solar system is born.
I find it interesting how the views differ from one source to another when it comes to the number of stars in a galaxy and to the number of galaxies in the universe. When obtaining my master's from the University of Colorado, the numbers used were approximately 400 billion for both. Another interesting piece of data they use is a comparison with the number of stars with the grains of sand on all of the beaches of the earth. Beach sands...10^18 and stars in the universe...10^22. These numbers are difficult for anyone to wrap their head around...beginning with me! "Universe Today" and "Extreme Space" has numbers that are similar to the ones mentioned above. Very cool statistics to use when introducing the vastness and huge numbers used as we discuss stars, galaxies and the universe!
*Most estimates based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, and in particular the belief that the Book of Genesis refers to a 24 hour day, cluster around 6,000 years, 2,000 years for both the age of the Earth and of the rest of the universe. These dates of creation are based on various and diverse interpretations of the Bible.
*Belief in a "young Earth" continued among scientists, until the early 18th century, when it became obvious to most researchers that geological processes were exceedingly slow, and must have been accomplished over incredibly long periods of time. A 5,800 year old earth simply was not possible. A hundred years later, investigators studying Egyptian remnants found that the civilization of Egypt began earlier than the time assigned for the creation of man. Once limited from the time constraints imposed by the young Earth concept, progress in geology and other earth scientists advanced by leaps and bounds.
*Most estimates of the Earth's age, based on actual measurements and calculations, are clustered around 4.5 billion years. Scientists further believe that the earth's crust solidified about 3.9 billion years ago. Parts of the universe itself are much older, dating back to the big bang, some 15 billion years ago. Such estimates are accepted by most old Earth creationists, by essentially all geologists, biologists and other earth and life scientists.
Carbon...also known as the element of life is the next topic. I begin atomic structure of atoms by describing how "empty" they are. I describe this concept by taking a Hydrogen atom and enlarging it until the proton is the size of a dime...where would the electron be? Place the proton on the fifty yard line of the football field and the electron would go around the goal posts. 99.9999% nothing! I take my thumb and index finger and call it my neutron shooter and pose the question..."if I fire my neutron through my students, lined up back to back, what are the chances that the neutron would go through everybody without hitting a thing! I also state that there are as many atoms in one human breath as there are number of breaths in the atmosphere of the earth. I use these examples to try to give my students an idea of not only how small they are, but also to reinforce the concept that it takes many, to say the least, to create a tiny dot with a pencil on paper.
Evaluate:
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Module VI..Atmospheric Systems
Explore:
Personally, like any other technology (or nearly anything for that matter), it becomes exciting when I understand what its uses are for and figure out how to use it...case in point is this GE snapshot (now that I have learned the process) of South America on March 4th, 2010. It distinctly shows the convection cells moving towards and away from the equator...in this case (southern hemisphere) the colder air from the Antarctica area flows toward to equator (2nd Law of Thermodynamics...thermal energy always flows, unless energy is put into the system, from higher temperature to lower temperature) and the warmer, closer to the equator air, moves up in latitude (down in relation to the equator) as it moves towards the South Pole. The Polar Front Jet Streams are quite obvious in this image! I am dumbfounded when I see and am able to use this type of technology...when I went through school, including college, without the use of even a computer, let alone the internet, I realize how students today have so much information readily available at their fingertips. The data at our disposal, nearly instantly, both now visual (satellite photos) and now proven, by today's technology, is mind boggling!
Extend:
Even after 18 years of teaching Geology and Physics, along with having a personal interest in the concepts, I am still in awe as to how thin and fragile our atmosphere really is. I have for many years stated to my students, as was read in this weeks module, that we live at the bottom of a (relative to the diameter of earth) "shallow" ocean of air. It helps students to better understand density, air pressure and how close we live to "real space". The notion of how small it is versus it's complexity is challenging to teach and often difficult for students to comprehend. The idea that what one country contributes to the atmosphere, effects the atmosphere of the entire earth, thus could and is by many believed effecting cultures today. The concept of climate change is most pronounced in the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere, thus is effecting cultures that have existed for centuries and requiring them to change their way of life in order to survive. Northern (especially) Native Alaskan communities (several TD video clips) have changed the way they go about maintaining their subsistence life style and because of living off of the land have been put in harms way as the oceanic and atmospheric currents bring with them industrial pollution from the southern, more populated regions. Climate change has also resulted in hunting manner...boating farther out into the Arctic and Bering to find walrus and other species that they require for foodstuffs are just the beginning of what is happening today!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Module V...How are climate, cultures & oceans connected?
By total coincidence I am currently using part of this week to introduce my Physics students to the concept of specific heat capacity! I used a few of the segments of this weeks blog as part of my lesson...what really struck me was that I had taught this concept for many years, but had never put into a "global" or "cultural" context. I have often used the winter and summer extreme temperatures of Nome vs. Fairbanks in my discussions though(even though the Bering Sea usually freezes near Nome so summer highs are more extreme than winter lows)...we all know that Fairbanks is colder in winter and hotter in summer, even though they are both at about 64 degrees north latitude and only a few hundred miles longitude apart.
Nome temperature averages/records compared to Fairbanks temperature averages/records is a great comparison because students know where they are and are fairly familiar with the towns. The record temperatures are about 10 degrees F higher in summer and about 10 degrees F lower in winter in Fairbanks! Another good comparison is Anchorage vs. Glennallen.
I use a step by step lab with my Physical Science students...I tried pasting and this was the best I could come up with. If someone is interested in the "printable/table" version please email me and I will be glad to attach and return to you!
Specific Heat Lab--Transfer of Energy
Objective:
Students will use lab measurement skills to find the specific heat of several unknown materials.
Materials Required:
1 100 ml graduated cylinder per group of three students
1 Aluminum block/piece
Other “unknown” materials
1 Celsius thermometer or temperature probe
1 large Styrofoam cup
Procedures:
1) Place EXACTLY 150 grams(ml) of water from bucket in the insulated cup using a graduated cylinder
2) Record temperature of bucket water in the table.
3) Go to your teacher and ask for the one of the objects—do aluminum first to prepare yourself for the unknowns.
4) Have your teacher place the object in your water and read you its temperature—record this in the table.
5) Allow the water and object to come into “thermal equilibrium”—about 3 to 4 minutes and record final temperature.
6) Remove the object from the water, dry it, mass it and record the results. Pour water in sink!
7) Repeat procedures 1 through 5 for each object.
8) Clean your work station.
9) Complete the data table by using the formula: specific heat(c) equals energy (cal.) divided by mass x change in temperature: c = Q / m∆T also…Q = mc∆T
**Remember**-- by understanding that the amount of energy lost by the object(Q) is equivalent to the energy gained by the water(Q), you can easily calculate the specific heat of the unknown object! I use the following objects...
Aluminum
Cylinder (nylon)
Bolt (brass)
Nut (iron)
Ball (lead)
Stone (basalt)
Bar (copper)
Yet another fun activity is to fill a paper cup with water and try to burn the cup with a torch. We all know from those camping trips as kids (even big kids) that the water boils and as it boils evaporation occurs and only the exposed top of the cup will burn. My students could not believe that the water balloon in the "Oceans of Climate Change" you tube video would not pop...I love it when students question what they see or hear, so of course we had to put it to the test..even my seniors could not believe it! A simple but very "cool" demo.
Explain:
The specific heat capacity of water plays a huge role in our earth's "thermal energy" balance and dynamics as is shown in this module. Couple that with fluid dynamics (oceans and atmosphere) and the constant mixing and motion of these fluids, and the result is a very complex system. The effect from a cultural standpoint is the number of humans that live near oceans...easy to understand near the equator and assisted by the information in this module...fluid dynamics elsewhere at greater latitudes.
Another major component of global heating and cooling is expressed in the "Reasons for the Seasons". I remember my first summer solstice in Alaska as I went out to measure my height to shadow ratio just for curiosity. Even in southcentral Alaska my shadow is longer than I was tall (comparing the ratio with what it is in 37 degrees north with that of 60 north)...and watching the sun go "around" the sky, rather that "over" the sky was interesting to observe. Fewer photons results in less energy received and thus a lower increase in the surrounding temperature which plays a big part in the climate of the area.
Albedo is an interesting concept also, especially when discussing latitudes that are above or below the "critical angle". At a certain angle light is totally reflected from a surface (here we are concerned with water). At certain latitudes and times of the year the infrared wave energy from the sun that strikes an ocean surface is reflected back into space with no increase of water temperature. Yet another (of the many other) consideration is the "phase change" of water. The energy required for melting solid water and released when changing from a liquid to a solid play another role in this very complex global energy concept...the reason that lakes are the last to freeze over in the fall and the last to melt in the spring are those same lakes!
Extend:
I found the "Gulf Stream" you tube video of particular interest...I did NOT know that Ben Franklin was originally commissioned to map those streams nor the process he went through to create his maps. This and several other of the clips were very helpful to me this week in driving home the concept of thermal energy. In Geology one assignment I use is to assign my students to choose a dozen sea side cities...six from the Atlantic and six from the Pacific and they all have to be at least fifteen degrees difference in latitude. They then, using oceanic currents and latitudes, describe the climate of the cities and explain WHY they are that way. I am excited as I continue to learn more tricks on Google Earth and know my future lessons will be more engaging for and meaningful to my students than just pointing to places on a map!
Evaluate:
The Teachers Domain and You Tube presentations in this module were extremely useful in visualizing several difficult and challenging concepts, from oceanic currents to the Coriolis effect. I look at these and don't know how I have gotten those concepts across to my students in the past(maybe I had failed)...I know future lessons will be much more "understandable" using these digital (and already created!) resources. When I found the sea surface temperature plug-in, I could not resist taking a snapshot...
Finally, another great interactive to exemplify the greenhouse effect is from PHet. Try adjusting the amount of greenhouse gases to really drive home the concept of global atmospheric warming and how those gases effect temperature. In my opinion this is the best website for Physics interactive resources. It also has chemistry, earth sciences, biology and mathematics interactives...I would highly recommend taking a look if you are not familiar with the site already!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
FINAL PROJECT...EXPLORE ALASKA!
How can digital resources and effective teaching methods be used to integrate Alaska Native ways of knowing and Western scientific methods in order to create greater understanding of, and interest in, geosciences for students?
- Below is a lesson created to introduce and develop the concept of glaciers, along with an understanding of the effects they have or had on not only our physical earth, but some of it's effects on humanity. It is intended for a 9-10 grade level earth science or geology course. More specific goals are found in the objectives portion of the lesson...
How Do Glaciers Effect the Earth’s Surface?
Objectives:
- Students will learn what glaciers are, characteristics of a glacial valley and the glacier life cycle.
- Students will develop an understanding of how glaciers form a glacial valley and their importance in fresh water provision to cultures below.
- Students will be able to determine if a valley is a river valley, glacial valley and/or possibly both.
Subject Area and Suggested Grade Level:
- Earth Science, Geology and Glaciation for grade levels 9-10
National Education Standards:
• Interactions among the solid earth, the oceans, the atmosphere, and organisms have resulted in the ongoing evolution of the earth system. We can observe some changes such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on a human time scale, but many processes such as mountain building and plate movements take place over hundreds of millions of years.
Time Needed: two hours of class time, more if extensions are desired.
Background Information:
A foundational concept of Geology/Earth Science is how the earth’s crust is always changing due to weathering and erosion. An important part of this concept on parts of our earth’s continents is glaciation. The earth’s crust is being continually changed in valleys where glaciers presently exist. The changes that occur are only evidenced over a long period of time and/or after the glacier no longer exists. Many of Alaska’s and lower 48 states valleys are the remains of glacial activity during the last ice age. Students should know how to make observations which will give them evidence, and then be able to illustrate in order to visualize how glaciers have changed the overall shape of the valley in which they currently exist or once existed in.
Materials:
• Small rocks and sticks
• Several football sized chunks of soft sandstone or other fairly soft rock type
• A large shoe box for sand—about 3 cm of sand in the box is enough
• Hand-lens for each group
• Paper to record data, record observations & answer questions
• Internet access and printer
Suggested Lesson Plan:
1) Show the you tube video “glacial erosion”
2) Discuss how a glacier forms, with it's life cycle. A very dramatic You Tube video is called "Collapse of a Glacier", take a look! If you have the time and need more information, any/all of the "other resources" listed below have a wealth of information about glaciers!
3) Discuss the shape of glacial valley versus a river valley and ask students to describe on their paper why they look the way that they do and how the process works. Use the site USGS "Alaskan Glaciers" to show examples during the discussion. Also question the class as to what they have heard or seen about climate change. How would a rise in global temperature effect the life span of a glacier and the number of glaciers, along with the cultural connection of fresh water needed to maintain a certain lifestyle in a place where glacial runoff is the main source of fresh water? Show the Teacher's Domain video clip "Climate Change Impacts Alaska Glaciers".
4) Divide into groups of four. Each member of the group should be assigned a duty; leader, recorder, glacier creator and earth’s surface creator. Have the recorder write the groups’ hypothesis as to what will happen to the sand and the rock as their “glacier” is rubbed against their surfaces.
5) Using the snow, make a glacier about 2 cm thick and 10 cm wide. When making the glacier, be sure to have students add a couple of sticks and a few pebbles to the underside of the mix. Make the glacier as solid and compacted as possible!
6) Use the glacier to create a valley in the sandbox. Take notes (using correct terminology) on what is observed; shape of valley, any grooves or notches and any other unusual phenomena. Then smooth out the sand in the box, put one end of the box over your textbook and pour 50 ml of water on the textbook end. Record your observations.
7) Make another glacier, this time round and very solid (a hard snowball). Again include the sticks and rocks. Carefully observe the surface of the rock sample you have using the hand-lens prior to scraping your glacier on it. With as much force as possible without breaking the glacier, vigorously rub the “glacier ball” over the surface of the rock many times. Make another observation of the surface and record your findings—again use the hand lens.
8) Students should summarize their findings upon completion of the activity on the paper which includes their observations...stress the use of the correct terminology & assist where needed.
9) Finally, go to Google Earth and take an "Alaskan Motorcycle Trip". During the trip, which can be done quite quickly, take three snapshots of valleys on the way. First a river valley, secondly a glacial valley that no longer contains a glacier and thirdly a glacial valley that presently contains a glacier. Paste the snapshots onto one page per group and collectively compare and contrast the three valleys on the paper next to the three snapshots. While on GE, have the group take one more snapshot of a mountainous area containing a large glacial valley. The Chugach Mountains contains many of areas...the pic should contain(labeled properly by the group members), at least one of each of the following...a cirque, an esker, both medial and lateral moraine, a horn, an arete, a hanging valley and a tarn. Lastly, the group should write at least two comments in reaction to what they heard in the TD video from #3 and as a group, create two questions about glaciers that they have, but were unable to answer...use this as part of the activity conclusion discussion.
**Glacier vocabulary...(a general and not complete list, add or delete as desired)
alpine glacier, continental glacier, flow, gravity, cirque, valley, piedmont, tidewater, advance, retreat, mass balance, ablation, accumulation, moraines, arete, crevasse, esker, erratic, glacial striations, till, terminus, hanging valley/glacier, headwall, tarn and tongue.
Possible Extensions:
1) Take a trip to a glacier, observe the ice, and test its hardness at different elevations in the glacier itself.
2) Go on-line and have students draw and label two “glacial valleys” that they have been to or may have only heard of. Have students find pictures of glaciers on the internet that have dark stripes in them and write a paper as to what is causing the phenomenon.
3) Have students write a paper on “blue ice” that is found in glaciers and why it appears that color.
4) Students could also describe five examples of changes in the earth’s crust of their local area. This could be right in their home-town or within their home state. Students could identify whether the changes observed are natural or man-caused type of changes.
Other Resources:
A couple of other great internet resources for understanding glaciers are;
- "Glacier Power" from the University of Fairbanks
- "Glaciers and Icefields" from the Tongass National Forest
- "All About Glaciers" by the National Snow and Ice Data Center
• Observe the written findings for each group and discuss any misconceptions found in their write-up.
• Quiz students on parts of a glacier, its color, hardness, crevasses and dark lines. There could be questions regarding length, thickness, color, age and speed at which they travel. Also include, to the depth of your lesson, a physical diagram of a glacial valley to be labeled using proper terms.
_____________________________________________________________________
Course Conclusion...My Answer to Essential Question
I believe the use of technology is the answer to the essential question...data collection, TD resources, Google Earth, legitimate You Tube Video, other internet resources and testimony from Native Elders, brings Western Science and Alaska Native views together. I learned much from listening/reading what was presented to us by Teacher's Domain concerning the Alaska Native way of teaching and their view of the world.
Combining decades of native observations & information with data that has been collected by Western Science increases my understanding (I believe it does the same for students) and creates a better overall picture of what is happening climatically for not only Alaskans, but for all humanity present and future!
On a personal note, Teacher's Domain has become an integral part of my Geology, Physics and Physical Science courses...thank you TD for making my job easier and most importantly increasing the engagement and effectiveness of lessons for my students!