1 / 19

Cool Science from Cold Places: Classroom Activities to Explore the Cryosphere and Polar Regions

UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu. Cool Science from Cold Places: Classroom Activities to Explore the Cryosphere and Polar Regions. Lisa Gardiner Sandra Henderson Becca Hatheway. Cool Science Workshop:

rasul
Download Presentation

Cool Science from Cold Places: Classroom Activities to Explore the Cryosphere and Polar Regions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu Cool Science from Cold Places: Classroom Activities to Explore the Cryosphere and Polar Regions Lisa Gardiner Sandra Henderson Becca Hatheway

  2. Cool Science Workshop: • Information about Earth’s Polar Regions, aWindows to the Universe resource • Glaciers: Then and Now • Model a Moving Glacier • Graphing Sea Ice Extent • Looking into Surface Albedo

  3. *Happy International Polar Year!

  4. Glaciers: Then and Now • Students compare photographs of glaciers to observe how Alaskan glaciers have changed over the last century.

  5. About Glaciers… Continental glaciers (ice sheets) cover large areas of land. Alpine glaciers (valley glaciers) fill high mountain valleys. How glaciers change: • Glacial advance: Glaciers become larger when more snow falls than melts. • Glacial retreat: Glaciers become smaller when more snow melts than falls.

  6. Glaciers MOVE! Glacial ice flows slowly downhill in two ways: • Internal deformation: plasticmovement within the ice (think: slow-flowing honey.) • Basal slip: the entire glacier slides on its base (think: slipping on a banana peel.) What factors affect how fast a glacier moves?

  7. Model a Moving Glacier This activity allows students to experiment and discover how three variables affect glacier flow: - valley slope - ice temperature - basal conditions (ground surface)

  8. Mix #1 Mix #2 2 tsp. of Borax ¾ cup warm water ½ cup warm water 1 cup white glue food coloring (optional) Models of glaciers using “flubber” Flubber glacier Flubber is a polymer that has the properties of both a liquid and a solid. The molecules in the flubber are loosely arranged and can slide past each other. Actual glacier

  9. Test it! What factors affect how fast a glacier moves? • Valley slope: • Shallow • Medium • Steep • Basal conditions: • Rough – sandpaper • Normal – plain PVC pipe • Lubricated – Foil and oil Pick avariable. Make ahypothesis. (e.g. the steeper the slope, the faster the flow.) Flubber in action

  10. Ice Over Water: Sea Ice • Sea ice is frozen seawater. It can be several meters thick. • During summer much (but not all) of the sea ice melts. • During winter more sea ice forms again.

  11. Graphing Sea Ice Extent Students graph sea ice extent (area) in the Arctic and Antarctic over a three-year period to learn about seasonal variations

  12. Graphing Sea Ice Extent Then, students graph sea ice extent over a 25-year period to learn about longer-term trends.

  13. “I don’t live anywhere near glaciers or sea ice. Why should I care if the ice melts?” Earth as a system: It’s all connected!

  14. Melting sea ice means less energy is reflected causing more globalwarming. Credit: NSIDC Melting glaciers means more water in the oceans causing sea level rise. Data from 23 tide gauge stations on tectonically stable continental margins (R.A. Rohde/Global Warming Art Project)

  15. Looking into Surface Albedo • This activity demonstrates how the color of materials that cover the Earth affects the amounts of solar energy absorbed. • Albedo is the amount of energy reflected by a surface • Dark colors – low albedo • Light colors – high albedo

  16. Check the flubber glaciers.

  17. Resources: • Windows to the Universe Newsletter for Educators (Sign up today! Form in your packet!) • Earth’s Polar Regionswww.windows.ucar.edu/polar.html • Climate and Global Changewww.windows.ucar.edu/climate.html UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, Boulder, CO, www.eo.ucar.edu

More Related