Week 8: Sea Ice

Explore:  Sea ice is something totally foreign to me.  Until I started going to workshops with teachers who taught in remote coastal villages that is.  I'm sure I still don't "get it" ... but at least I know it exists now.


Another term that is new to me is cryosphere.  The cryosphere is the portion of Earth's surface that is solid water ... or ice.  So that would include sea ice, lake ice, permafrost, glaciers, snow, and the ice in my freezer!


At first I thought that this mysterious cryosphere had nothing to do with me and my life.  Then I watched the cryosphere video ... oh well, I guess I do have snow in my backyard and the freezing rain caused ice on the roads that got me two extra days off from work last week.  

Extend:  Snow and ice are great topics for Alaskan students to explore.  Let's face is most of the school year is winter.  If you want to get kids outside doing science, there will be a days available for snow and ice studies than plants.  

I am somewhat involved in a permafrost study that partners with UAF.  Basically Kenji comes by a couple times a year and checks on our "frost tube".  A frost tube is a simple PVC pipe with some flexible tubing inside.  The flexible tubing contains a colored liquid ... so we can see how deep the frost is in the winter.  If we lived in an area with permafrost we could also see how the permafrost layer changes throughout the winter.  Another easy way for students to do science, and interact with scientists.  

These images show what a frost tube is and how it keeps track of the frozen layers throughout the year.  (uaf.edu)

Kenji also makes fun youtube videos called TunnelMan!  

Evaluate:  At first I thought this topic was a bit repetitive, revisiting the same topics from previous modules, but after I watched a few videos I changed my mind.  I appreciate that ice was broken up into two modules.  It really is too big and too important and diverse of a topic to be covered in one module.

Three classmates:

Want some help with positive feedback loops?  Talk to Tyler.

Get to know Mother Earth with Kathy.

Kris does a very thorough job guiding me through the module.

Week 7: Carbon

Explore:  Adapt, Migrate or Die!
Lately the topic of climate change has been bringing me down.  It is no longer a new topic ... but an old horse, beaten down.  People know what is going on but I hear so much doubt, conspiracy theories, "but there is nothing I can do about it" attitudes.  Doom, gloom, hopelessness.

Then I farted around in this week's cultural connections.  This may sound weird but I found it uplifting.  In Alaskan villages climate change is here, now, affecting their lives and they are doing something about it.  Whole communities and school districts ... like the Arctic Climate Modeling Program.  Ahhh, the sun peaks  over the mountain.

Extend:  I love the interdisciplinary overlapping topics in this module.  Climate change, carbon cycle, periodic table, geologic timelines, early life on Earth, origins of Earth, organic chemistry ... what a great thematic unit.  I teach so many of these topics separately.  Look how well they fit together!

I'm thinking the 6 Soil Microbes and Global Warming video will fit in well during our microbes unit in biology, reinforcing the carbon cycle topic we cover earlier in the year.  If I can't do one thematic unit, at least I can show how the topics recycle throughout the year.  Life Before Oxygen will also be a great segway into arachaebacteria.

For the past 12 years I've been collecting green up and green down data using protocols from the GLOBE Program.  It is an easy to do activity where students observe a branch or leaves on a branch to document when the leaves change color and fall off in the fall, and the when bud burst happens in the spring.  I've enjoyed using this program to give kids a chance to contribute to the base line or moving line data for Alaska.

Evaluate:  This is one of my favorite modules.  So many overlapping topics and concepts, with real life issues and problem solving mixed in.  Bravo!

Three classmates:
For some first hand accounts of how the climate is changing in Juneau ... see Kevin.

Marilyn's blog makes me fall out of my chair in awe ... it is so professional looking.

I learned about Our World 2.0 from Doug.

Week 6: Air

Explain:  This week we look at the atmosphere.  In some ways the atmosphere seems simple, a "thin" layer of air.  But, the more I learn, the more I realize it is much more complex and often misunderstood.

This summer I had the opportunity to attend a conference for polar science researchers.  The atmosphere was a topic that filled many sessions.  Especially in the arctic and antarctic, the atmosphere is a subject of great concern with new knowledge surfacing regularly.

Extend:  Two ideas:
1.  Phase changes and the idea of latent heat are key topics in the lake ice unit I teach.  See ALISON link from Week 5.  It is a tricky subject for kids to "get" ... absorbing energy without a change in temperature.  Thanks for the ideas.

2.  I am also involved in a program based out of the University of Montana called Air Toxics Under the North Star.  It is an extension of a similar program called Air Toxics Under the Big Sky.  The program has students collect particulate matter data with a machine called the DustTrak.  The students design their own inquiry project and present their results to other students and adults.  The items in this week's module will be useful in this project.

Evaluate:  No complaints.  Great resource for students and teachers, again.

I love the 24 hour clock showing the history of the Earth!  You are doing great blogs.  (Tim)

You have some great cultural connections. I hope that someday I'll have such a wealth of knowledge to pull from! (Lila)


Thanks for sharing your memories from childhood and college days.  It makes your blog fun and easy to read.  (Carolyn)

Week 5: Oceans, so big, so wide, so deep

Wow this week does cover so much ... just like the oceans, I guess.


Explain:  I got a kick out of the video clip on the Coriolis Effect.  The video wasn't overly exciting, but the comments on the YouTube site, under the video were very entertaining.  I've learned that the people who make anonymous comments online are usually the folks who shouldn't.  Who would've thought there could be so much controversy in a boring old topic like the Coriolis Effect?!?


The video about Ben Franklin and the Gulf Stream was a big chunk of my new learning this week.


Extend:  There is something for everyone this week, some biology, geology, physics, chemistry ... oceans have it all.  The lesson that I found particularly applicable for what I'm teaching right now is the video clip about specific heat with the balloon, I think I will try that at home!

I teach a unit involving lake ice, so seeing some of the info about specific heat and oceans ice reinforced the lessons we do in that unit.  If you are interested, the lake ice project is called ALISON - Alaska Lake Ice and Snow Observatory Network.  Check it out.


Seasons ... I watched the sunset/sunrise video just because it felt good.  It reminded me of a time lapse video I saw at a conference this summer.  It went through an year in Antarctica in about ten minutes showing the landscape from 24 hours of daylight to 24 hours of darkness.  Here is a YouTube video that is not the one I remember, but still interesting.  I bet students could make a video using Google Earth that shows the seasonal daylight changes in Arctic and Antarctic regions.

A Year On Ice

Evaluate:  Oceans are an easily overlooked, skipped, misperceived topic.  I love how this module brought so many topics to the table so I could sample them all.  Yum.   


Three of us:


Ian keeps busy writing about what he's read.  See his link to his other blog.
Is anyone interested in a field trip to Maui?  Dave and I are!
Bobbi used GoogleEarth to measure her island, Kodiak Island.