This lesson incorporates techniques and experimental designs used by researchers during the Southern Ocean Diatoms PolarTREC expedition and during post-expedition laboratory analysis. This guided inquiry lesson provides students the opportunity to explore photosynthesis and primary productivity using techniques to measure chlorophyll levels.
Objectives
SWBAT:
1. Use models to predict chlorophyll levels in the global oceans
2. Identify
Understanding Physical and Chemical Parameters of Ocean Water Using CTD Profiles
Overview
A focus of the PolarTREC Southern Ocean Diatoms expedition was to collect water samples and physical profile data using oceanographic technology. Oceanographers rely on the real-time data transferred from the water column to the ship-based computers using a CTD sensor. The CTD measures conductivity (salinity), temperature and depth
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
The Solar Oven Science activity was developed as a way to target conservation of energy. Some students understand that he sun can be used for heating and cooking but they mistakenly think that this can only work in deserts. Because of conservation of energy solar cooking and heating can work in temperate and even arctic environments. The linked
This activity is a way to create a cloud chamber in the classroom. A cloud chamber allows students to view "invisible" alpha particles emitted through nuclear decay. Alpha particles have a long history in nuclear physics--they are a helium nucleus and their emission during nuclear decay was one of the first ways we knew that atomic nuclei could
FAIRBANKS — A group of high school science and math teachers who could help unlock the secrets of the universe were in Fairbanks last week. The five teachers, who come from all over the Lower 48 as part of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, were training for the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a telescope located at the South
KATHERINE SHIREY prefers warm climates. She’s vacationed in Colombia, Costa Rica, Belize and other tropical locales. But in January 2011, this Washington-Lee High School physics teacher will be traveling to Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, to conduct experimental research. “I’d much rather prefer to go to a warm climate but that’s just not where the action is,” Shirey said.
About this time next year, Casey O'Hara, Carlmont High School physics teacher, will experience extreme subzero temperatures, 24 hours of intense sunlight and 10,000 feet of elevation. He'll travel to desolate Antarctica as a member of the largest research project of its kind - the construction of IceCube, the world's biggest telescope for detecting subatomic particles.
.mp3 file of National Geographic Weekend Radio program, hosted by Boyd Matson. Interview with Casey O'Hara about his upcoming trip to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole