Module IX...The Crysphere: Terrestrial Ice

Essential Question: How are climate, terrestrial ice and Alaskan indigenous cultures all connected?

Explore

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)

1000 drops total...did not do well as a geology teacher...yet another tool for my toolbox!

I know this one is going to get the best of me but here it goes...

"1000 Snow Flakes"
__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.

When assisting students with the understanding of geologic time, I have had great luck using "Understanding the Geologic Time Scale" activity put out by the University of Texas. I start with the second activity of Relative vs. Absolute Time and then go back to the Football Field activity. Of course the old stand by is effective also...draw a long line across the longest board available and start labeling...I like to start by having three students come to the board and place a line where the first life appears, dinosaurs died and where humans appear...a great discussion starter! Yet another visual is done by Carl Sagan-The Cosmic Calendar found on you tube. I use this with my 10th & 11th graders in Geology.

Extend

"The Big Melt"...check out a 3 minute National Geographic video clip about Mongolia showing the rate to which the ice there is diminishing. The photographer Jonas Bendiksen of Norway stated that, short of the north and south pole, "the mountains around the Tibetan Plateau hold more snow and ice than anywhere on the earth." He also states that this "ice is melting faster than anywhere else on the planet." This plateau is the source point for all of Asia's major rivers, which provides water for over a billion people. He comments on the people that live in Tibet but also those that live up to 500 miles downstream. Their pasture lands are disappearing due to climate change. In Delhi, India, some peoples day starts at 3am, standing in line, waiting for water! The people there are trying to shore up their embankments to protect what little water they receive. Quite a scenario...well worth a look!
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 interesting concept of glacial activity is following a rock that rolls off of a mountain and ends up on the top of the accumulation zone. It will then be buried by storms and thus move down into the glacier. As it approaches the firn limit it then moves along with the glacier and then "rises" back to the surface at the zone of ablation--it does not really rise, the snow over it melts so it appears to rise to the surface. Really cool!!

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!

Evaluate

I have very few Alaska Native students, maybe a half dozen per year, but have come to appreciate the underlying concept of this course. I have been enlightened to the fact that even though climate change definitely has a greater effect on our Alaska native cultures, but it does effect us all in one form or another. The TD resource called "If the Ice Melts" distinctly shows that climate change may not just effect Alaskans, but also a large percentage of the rest of the worlds population.

As Clay commented in his March 23 email, I too have gained a wealth of new resources working through this course that I have incorporated into my lessons, but also "borrowed" some from others blogs...many thanks to all of you for sharing resources that will liven up my presentations and ultimately increase the "quality" of information that I know will benefit my students!

Module VIII...The Cryosphere: Arctic Sea Ice

Essential Question: How are Arctic sea-ice, climate and culture all connected?

Explore:

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!

On a more serious note, I found the TD presentation on "Earth's Cryosphere: The Arctic" revealing as I grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Utah and did not know that permafrost existed there!

I also found the Tom Wagner (NASA) clip to be very informative and plan to integrate that clip into my Geology course under the concept of climate.
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"!

Another important point to bring up with students is the difference between heat, thermal energy and temperature. An school building sized iceberg contains a lot of thermal energy, though the temperature is lower than it's surroundings, which is released to the environment when it melts...melting is a "cooling" process...energy from the environment (80 calories per gram) goes into the melting of the iceberg. The age old question of what has the most thermal energy...a hot cup of coffee or an iceberg is a great starting point for the discussion. One more discussion question is why 2000 degree C sparks from a sparkler don't burn...high in temperature but very low in thermal energy. Heat is a term that is used loosely..."someone turn up the heat"...can't be done, but we can turn up the thermal energy...heat is the transfer of energy due to a temperature difference...touch a hot or cold piece of metal and heat transfer occurs!

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!

Explain:

In a previous blog I discussed the phase change chart...so simple to use in a classroom, yet so complex when it is applied to climate. It helps us understand how thermal energy is stored and released through the different seasons, along with how small global temperature increases or decreases can have such a dramatic effect on cultures that live at latitudes near or above the arctic circle. The subsistence lifestyle if these people is such that they need ice at certain times of the year to acquire food and they also need open water at other times for the same purpose.

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!

Evaluate:

This module has reminded me of the effects of the loss of sea ice...global ocean rise, difficulty of cultures who use it for hunting/travel is diminished, and overall global temperature increases, and has educated me on the decrease of the salinity of the oceans...for me the question would be "how will that effect the life that exists in the oceans?". We all know how closely we are connected to oceans, from global temperatures to hurricanes, drought, the number of people who live near oceans and make their livelihood there, and more! I suppose the next couple of decades will tell the story!

Module VII...Earth's Changing Climate

Essential Question...How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological and cultural systems?

Explore:

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.

Stephen Hawking's Universe: An Answer to Everything

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.

Explain:

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!

From universe to atoms...quite a jump, but directly connected! Where and how is the matter that makes up the universe created...STARS...through the method of fusion. What is fusion? Fusion is the process that energizes stars. It is the reaction in which two atoms of hydrogen combine together, or fuse, to form an atom of helium. (Atoms besides hydrogen, fuse together in stars to make other atoms up to and including iron...atoms above iron on the chart are fused in supernovae explosions) In the process some of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy...up through and including iron on the periodic table. Above iron energy is absorbed so the process slows, resulting in a dying star. The easiest fusion reaction to make happen is combining deuterium (or “heavy hydrogen) with tritium (or “heavy-heavy hydrogen”) to make helium and a neutron. Deuterium is plentifully available in ordinary water.

Extend:

There is a great diversity of beliefs concerning the age of the Earth and the rest of the universe, with the age of elements being an integral part of that puzzle:

*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.

We then use the element Carbon to express the concept that atoms are only borrowed...we all have a few carbons in our bodies that were borrowed by Hitler, Einstein, George Washington and everyone else who came before us. The Carbon Cycle helps us to understand the that the atoms that make up our bodies are only on loan and then put directly back into the cycle, but also the fact that atoms do not age! They will remain what they are "forever", unless they go through another fusion or fission process. I also like to point out that the food we eat for Calories (energy) comes from something that was once alive...ALL life as we know it is carbon based! As Carl Sagan stated, "we are all made of star dust". We (humans, animals, plants, the earth itself, our sun, stars, etc.) are all connected directly to the rest of the universe...we are the result of previous star life and death!

Evaluate:

The Teacher's Domain descriptions of how the elements needed for life were/are created (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc) and the rise of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere (especially carbon dioxide) following the industrial revolution and in particular in the last couple of decades, shows clearly that humans are givers and takers when it comes to the concept of "our place in the universe" and directly on our earth's atmosphere. The testimonies of native people as to how their subsistence culture is changing or has changed, not by choice but by necessity to maintain their style of life, as a result of global temperature increase should make us all realize that no matter where we live on this earth, if we choose to ignore or blame greenhouse gas increases on mother nature, we will all eventually be effected in one form or another. As was stated in a previous module...it really is a disgrace to mankind that those who contribute the least to greenhouse gases are effected the most by them!

Teacher's Domain is beginning to change the way I teach...more technology integration is not only a great asset from an informational perspective and lesson plan viewpoint, but I have found that students are more engaged when GOOD technology is built into my lessons...my low performing students seem to rise even more! Thank you TD!