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.