Melissa Lau spent a month in the tundra ecosystem gathering data using a device called a Greenseeker. This device measures exactly how green a plant is by calculating its NDVI or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. In this lesson, students will explore light waves, how they interact with plants, and find out how green is green.
One of the most important indicators of our warming climate is the extent and thickness of polar sea ice. Currently satellites measure the extent of polar sea ice but it takes more sophisticated equipment aboard a low-flying plane to actually measure the thickness of sea ice. This lesson will show students how this is done.
This website is an English translation of some of the sections of the progettosmilla.it website, the Italian educational project of ANDRILL, an Antarctic International Scientific Research project. The site includes a blog from Antarctica, descriptions of ANDRILL research geared to students and teachers, multimedia and poster presentations, and links to other relevant resources. Some of the resources available here are
What's a Flexhibit? A Flexhibit is a Flexible Exhibit package that contains a set of hands-on learning activities, attractive banner graphics, and video podcasts that make it possible for groups of 10- to 15- year olds to engage in both learning and teaching. Groups of students can complete the learning activities in approximately 10 sessions, then use the materials and
This PDF handout and activity provides background information about polar weather and climate followed by an activity to help students consider their own local weather vs. polar weather. Students will observe the weather where they live and report on basic meteorological data such as air temperature, precipitation, wind etc. and use a weather map to compare their local weather to
Students will observe how soils and rocks of different densities behave in wind and in water. They will make predictions and careful observations as they learn about sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
Permafrost is a key cryospheric component and of global interest for better understanding climate change. This short film presents an overview of permafrost on Earth and focuses on the International Polar Year (IPY) activities of a research group from the University of Lisbon and its international partners. Video narration in Portuguese with English subtitles.
What happens to the salinity in the Bering Sea during ice and no ice conditions? Does it change throughout the year and at different depths during different seasons? Create a model of the Bering Sea in ice conditions. Change the conditions based on seasonal changes to explore the effects of runoff on salinity.
Students are asked to predict what will happen to styrofoam objects lowered down to the bottom of the Bering Sea. Students make the appropriate calculations related to the actual experiment which took place on Maggie Prevenas' PolarTREC expedition.
Objective
Students will make hypotheses and calculations regarding deep sea experiments that took place in the Bering Sea on
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