NASA’s Operation IceBridge uses remote sensing techniques to build a picture of parts of our world not accessible or easily observed by humans. Flying 1500 feet above sea and land ice, the science team uses LiDAR, Radar, Infrared imaging, and high resolution digital imagery to collect information about our polar regions year after year. In this classroom project, inspired and
NASA’s Operation IceBridge, the largest airborne survey of Earth’s polar ice, uses remote sensing techniques like LiDAR (light detection and ranging), snow- and ice-penetrating radar, high resolution digital imaging, and infrared cameras to collect information on our changing ice sheets and sea ice. Several times each year a science team and flight crew head out on month-long campaigns in
Oftentimes called “ghost particles,” neutrinos can travel through nearly everything (the sun, the earth, you!) undetected. Because they are nearly massless, gravitational fields do not affect neutrinos; Similarly, because they are chargeless, electric and magnetic fields do not con affect neutrinos. This lack of interaction is advantageous for IceCube researchers – when they detect a neutrino, it is a
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the Standard Model, learning key vocabulary such as Fermions, Hadrons, Mesons, Baryons, Quarks, Leptons, particles, and anti-particles. In particular, students will come to understand what a neutrino is and why it is such a unique particle. This understanding connects to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory’s search for neutrinos in an effort to
When radioactive elements decay they emit high-speed particles. These can be detected by use of a cloud chamber. The cloud chamber was invented by Charles Thomson Rees Wilson in 1911. The chamber works by saturating the air inside with alcohol vapor. Cooling the chamber with dry ice supersaturates the air. The energetic particles produced by the radioactive decay ionize
Before leaving for the South Pole in late 2009, I received many suggestions for things to try down under. Liz Ratliff’s math classes suggested we try making ice cream! So, before I left, I had my students follow her recipe to make ice cream in our classroom in balmy California. After arriving at the pole, I was able
Students will individually weigh a random sample of pennies. The data will be graphed to look for patterns, then explanations will be sought to explain these patterns. Some of the key ideas are using graphical representations of data to help identify patterns. This is a key concept in all sciences, including in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory - data
For this experiment, we are going to melt dirty ice (ice with lots of sediment/dirt in it) and clean ice (ice without sediment) from the Taylor Glacier. After we melt the ice, we are going to test the melt water for pH and conductivity, and then determine how much salt is actually in our ice samples. There are