Arctic Challenge

Overview

This lesson allows students to learn about the Arctic through a challenging question and answer game format. Inspired by experiences in the Hidden Ocean 2016: Chukchi Borderlands expedition, the game includes “careers”, “animals”, “equipment”, “climate change”, and “geography” components. The game may be used as a learning tool, a review tool, or an assessment tool.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify some equipment used to study Arctic regions.
• Describe some Arctic animals and their roles in the Arctic ecosystem.
• Locate the Arctic Ocean/Chukchi Borderlands on a map.
• Identify careers associated with Arctic research.
• Relate the effects of changing climate to Arctic regions.

Lesson Preparation

This lesson may be used as either a learning tool, a review tool, or an assessment (pre or post) tool. The lesson may also be used as an introduction to Arctic studies.

Procedure

• Students may compete as individuals or in pairs or small groups.
• To maximize participation, it is recommended that students use whiteboards or paper to record their answers. Alternatively, student teams may use a buzzer system to ring in.
• Decide upon rules for scoring and selection of categories/questions prior to beginning the game.
• The teacher may serve as “MC”, or this role may be assigned to a student.
• The MC reads each question and students record their answers prior to revealing the answers.

Resources

Many of the answers may be found in Sandra Thornton’s PolarTREC journals. (https://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/chukchi-sea-borderland)

Assessment

Instructor may wish to keep track of correct and incorrect answers to questions as a way to guide further instruction.

Author / Credits

This lesson was created by Sandra L. W. Thornton, PolarTREC Fellow/NOAA Teacher At Sea 2016. Thornton may be contacted at slwthornton [at] gmail.com.