The Arctic Ocean Curriculum Unit was created by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States with funding from the North Pacific Research Board. This project aimed to update and revise existing Arctic Ocean-related lesson plans originally created by PolarTREC program teacher alumni. The format used lends itself to the changes in education - providing student-facing slide decks that allow
This resource is a 2-minute immersive video that takes students inside the Permafrost Research Tunnel outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. It includes footage of both the new and old sections of the tunnel.
Objectives
Through watching this video, students will get to see what permafrost looks like from the inside, identifying typical features geological features (ex. ice wedges). Through the
Ice that forms in the polar oceans is an important driver behind the global climate. This ice is physically different from frozen precipitation in a number of different ways. In this brief inquiry activity, students make qualitative observations about two types of ice cubes and deduce ice composition based on their observations. This activity may serve as an introduction to
My high school has a Science Club whose members visit local elementary schools and run various “stations” that (elementary) students visit for 10-15 minutes before rotating to a different one. This lesson is designed to be one those – a quick hitting, but engaging look into polar science that will stir the kids’ inherent curiosity and get them
The Yale Climate Forum released this YouTube video on Permafrost in 2013. The causes and effects of melting permafrost are explained and linked to larger phenomena. Visit the Yale Climate Forum Website to learn more.
In this one hour webinar PolarTREC teacher Tim Spuck explains his work with the NASA IceBridge Project, the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever conducted.
View sequential still images of thermokarst (thawed permafrost) at Horn Lake in northern Alaska during the summer of 2010. The video was made by researchers studying the responses of Arctic landscapes to permafrost degradation.
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are studying the East Siberian Arctic Shelf region and finding the seafloor there holds vast stores of frozen methane and is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas. In this video University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Natalia Shakhova discusses the East Siberian Arctic Shelf area.
In an explosive clip from the BBC's landmark series, scientists drill into a frozen lake to ignite methane gas that is trapped in bubbles beneath the surface. Do greenhouse gases pose a signficant threat to our planet? Dr Iain Stewart assesses the dangers.