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
By rolling a die, students will simulate a molecule of carbon’s movement with in the carbon cycle. This is a fun, active way to introduce students to the carbon cycle and/or to review the cycle and identify carbon sinks and sources.
Students experience the carbon cycle as CO2 molecules or as stored carbon and travel the path of
In this lesson, students will observe repeat photography samples from Denali National Park that show the change in vegetation over time due to change in climate. This activity introduces students to using observation techniques and visual art vocabulary and skills to create an interactive work of art.
Topics
* Using repeat photography models to document change
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Students will explain, both orally and in writing, a diagram used to illustrate a food web.
Objectives
Students will learn how language is used to communicate and is required to impart knowledge and sustain a healthy, traditional community in a modern world.
Students will learn strategies for communicating complex ideas to an audience.
Students discover how different organisms that live in the Arctic depend on each other and what might happen to the food web if one or more organisms disappears from it. Students will build an arctic food web.
Objectives
Students will learn that organisms are part of a global food web and linked to each other and their
As the homepage of the website describes, "The beauty of the Arctic, its precious and fragile nature, its critical role in maintaining a stable climate for the planet, and the rapid rate of change that is occurring there must all be conveyed to the general public. Here, through digital story telling, we put a human face on science, life, societies
Students will use marshmallows to simulate toxins in the environment. Concentrations of these toxins will be modeled and calculated as they bioaccumulate up the food chain. Methylmercury and POPs are substances that bioaccumulate in the Arctic food chain. OASIS scientists studied these in Barrow, Alaska. (See Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice and Snow (OASIS) Project at www.polartrec.com)
This lesson answers the question: How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts?
Objective
* Students will learn about temperature, salinity and their effect on density.
* Students will learn that ocean currents are caused by differences in densities as a result of temperature and salinity. These differences allow ocean currents to circulate water
This lesson allows students to use online mapping tools to investigate global snow cover changes. Students develop a problem statement about global snow cover and then use mapping tools to investigate their problem or question.
Objective
Students will become familiar with the data and tools used to analyze snow cover changes in order to answer questions pertaining
Antarctic time lapse movies and photos by professional photographer Anthony Powell. Website includes high resolution versions of the time lapse films, "Antarctica: A Year on Ice" and "Aurora Australis: The Southern Lights".