Students complete a physical puzzle based on a scientific poster about Bowhead Whales. Students then research the content of the poster and present their findings.
Objective
To familiarize students with:
* the scientific method
* real polar scientific posters
* real polar scientific research
* real polar scientific terminology
* real polar scientific technology
* real polar
Follow the Polar Expedition is a booklet designed for students to help them learn about the 2012 Chukchi Sea Offshort Monitoring in the Drilling Area (COMIDA) Hanna Shoal Ecosystem Study with PolarTREC teacher Deanna Wheeler. The expedition is August 5-25, 2012, aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter.
The booklet has terms used on the ship as well as several activities
Students will engage in a hands-on activity to help them consider what students in a tropical climate do to prepare for recess compared with students who live in the interior of Alaska.
Objectives
Students will:
* Compare what students in a tropical climate do to prepare for recess with students who live in the interior of Alaska.
* Learn
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)
Students will discover how a simple action such as turning on a television will lead to toxins in our food supply. Many of these toxins concentrate in the Arctic because of long-range transport of pollutants in the atmosphere. Scientists in the OASIS project (http://www.polartrec.com/ocean-atmosphere-sea-ice-and-snowpack-interactions) study these pollutants in the Arctic. Students will learn about actions that they can take to
Students will sort organisms found in the Bering Sea into food chains and gain an awareness of the flow of energy and nutrients in the Bering Sea Ecosystem.
Objective
Students learn about the different organisms that live in Alaskan waters by playing the Fabulous Food Chain Game. In playing the game, they become aware of the flow of energy
This activity is designed to take place near or at the end of a unit on the ocean floor. Students should be familiar with the physical features of the ocean floor including the continental shelf, abyssal plain, seamounts and guyots, seafloor ridges and trenches, and submarine canyons. The students should have also previously learned about sonar methods for mapping the
In this lesson, students learn about what archaeologists do and then practice implementing these skills with "real artifacts".
Objective
Students will:
* be able to define an artifact and an archaeologist.
* use evidence to support their decisions about the origin and use of an unknown item.
The study of rock and sediment layers, or stratigraphy, can be used to introduce students to the fundamental principles of geology and to lead into the idea of geologic time. In this lesson, students are introduced to Nicolas Steno's 3 major laws of stratigraphy: the law of original horizontality, the law of superposition and the law of lateral
Students will use "Susea" the seal—a seal toy that grows in water—to discover the scientific process. This lesson was created by Maggie Prevenas who took part in the Bering Ecosystem Study on the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea.
Objective
Students interact with a seal that grows in water to practice basic measuring and scientific inquiry skills, while learning