This is an article detailing the alarming rate at which the Arctic is changing. The article goes through the specific examples of Sea ice, Greenland, Wildfires and Permafrost. This is a readable article for advanced middle school and high school students, and an excellent resource for teachers.
In this investigation, students will measure production of CO2 from surface water and consider the role of surface waters in the global carbon cycle and climate change. They will gather data on using Vernier CO2 sensors. This lesson presents a wonderful opportunity for student-designed experiments.
This is a good lesson to get students thinking about the complexity of the systems involved in providing our society with energy, the consequences of energy use and efficiency. Students are encouraged to explore the data sets on their own, ask their own questions about energy use and present their findings to each other.
Students will explore the concept of albedo and how it relates to melting ice and climate change. This is a hands-on activity where students measure the reflectivity of various surfaces as a model for how light interacts with different parts of the Earth’s surface. This is adapted from lessons created by Jamie Esler and SERC earthlabs.
Learning about feedback mechanisms is an important part of understanding how climate change will play out in the near and long term. Students are also exposed to the idea that scientists create simple models of complex climate systems and that feedback mechanisms play a crucial role in climate modeling.
The report is written by teacher participants upon return from their field expedition portion of the PolarTREC program. It summarizes the benefit of the expedition to the teacher, a description of activities, and a summary of how teachers plan to link this experience in classrooms and communities. This is a public document that will be posted in teacher portfolios and
Free community viewing of Taking Earth's Temperature -Delving Into Earth's Past followed by Q & A w/contributor Dr. Jason Briner. Organized by PolarTREC teacher, Tina Ciarametaro in her home community after her expedition to Greenland. Learn more here about the documentary Taking Earth's Temperature.
News release letter for Tina Ciarametaro's expedition to Greenland to study shrinking arctic icecaps. The release explains the upcoming expedition, PolarTREC's goals/objectives and how to follow the expedition.
This one hour webinar is conducted by PolarTREC alumni Missy Holzer. She highlighted her work with the High Arctic Change expedition 2008 and bringing inquiry-based science into her classroom. This webinar is part of the C-ISE online professional development course.