Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR):
Seeing Below the Surface While Keeping Scientists Safe
Overview
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a valuable technology that utilizes waves of low frequency electromagnetic radiation to help polar scientists understand what is beneath their feet! Using real field data from the Icelandic glacier Múlajökull, along with a small selection of short videos and web-based resources
This lesson allows learners to analyze and evaluate how the science of climate change and global warming are portrayed in various online media outlets.
Objectives
* Students will be able to analyze and evaluate the written structure that an author uses when writing about the science of climate change and global warming.
* Students will be able
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)
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 undertake a long term project to evaluate the effectiveness of different local forecasters, match the forecast with the actual weather and analyze which forecaster is best.
Objective
Students will compare the accuracy of different weather forecasts. Students will compile and analyze their own data gaining a better understanding of the challenges involved in weather forecasting
In this activity, students diagram the hydrologic cycle. Most of the concepts will already be familiar to middle and high school students, but this activity is a good way to prepare for making the far more challenging carbon cycle and energy NON-cycle diagrams.
Objective
* Students understand that the total amount of water on Earth is constant
In this activity, students diagram the flow of energy through the Earth's ecosystems. A lot of the concepts presented here are necessary in order to fully understand the greenhouse effect and global warming. This lesson is presented as an activity to do before embarking on a study of the greenhouse effect and global warming. Unlike water or carbon
In this activity, students diagram the carbon cycle. A lot of the concepts presented here are necessary in order to fully understand the greenhouse effect and global warming. This lesson is presented as an activity to do before embarking on a study of the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Each group of 2-4 students will research an arctic topic from a list, build a small web page devoted to that topic, link the group’s page to other groups’ relevant pages, and advocate for change around an issue that is important to the topic.
Objective
Students will understand the complexity and vulnerability of Arctic ecosystems
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