These experiments are easy to construct and the concepts help students to make connections between laboratory experiments and experiments conducted in situ. In addition to these experiments, there will be some literature and art activities displayed with the goal of raising awareness about Polar habitats and the changes that are being observed.
albedo
Solar heat into surface waters. Ice albedo feedback hard at work? Ice ocean system is receiving a doubling amount of heat over the past 3 decades from the Atlantic side.
What are we seeing? What is happening with this heat?
Experiment: which absorbs heat longer/faster dark material or light material?
Students make a hypothesis about how quickly snow (or shaved ice) will melt on a white versus black surface under a heat lamp, then conduct the experiment and discuss the results. Learning Objectives:
The scientific method, hypothesis testing
Reflectance and phase changes of water
Climate change, melting of snow and the polar ice cap
Positive feedbacks and climate change
The temperature—albedo feedback is positive because the initial temperature change is amplified
Acidification of sea water
Effects on food chain.
Experiment: vinegar and egg. Tums and vinegar. Relate to pterapods and calcium carbonate shelled creatures.
FIND
Grape Races here:
http://oceanlink.island.net/ONews/ONews7/changing_currents_lp.htmlTree ring reading
Dendochronology
Use tree rings to see climate change over time. Students count tree rings from sections of the same tree in order to analyse and discuss measurement error and the utility of tree rings to ecology.
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/arctic-projects/alaskas-arctic-landscape-then-and-now/Researchers find trees in their cores
http://pyrn.ways.org/newsblog/adventures-permafrost-coring and read the tree rings to look at past climates.
Permafrost
Make permafrost samples with the class.
Take readings of climate changes over time
Make your own core in a 20 cm high washed out milk carton or frozen juice carton by putting a layer of sand, stone, toothpicks. Make three layers and students can then *read* the core – students can read each others. “I see wood or vegetation so I assume there was vegetation at the 300 m mark” is an example of a conclusion.
http://www.acecrc.sipex.aq/access/page/?page=8ceca7fe-b249-102a-8ea7-0019b9ea7c60 and
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/secrets-beneath-ice.htmlice
Why study ice?
Is there increased
salinity in the oceans?
Where will this have an effect? And how? Talk about andrill.org .
Experiment: Two tubs of water: one with saltwater, one with fresh water. In which will ice melt more quickly?
Blubber insulation
Experiment with a “blubber glove” to see how insulation affects heat transfer and how blubber helps polar animals in cold conditions.
You need 4 ziploc bags. Turn two inside out. Make two gloves by zipping one inside out bag into an untouched bag. One *glove gets shortening for insulation before sealing.
Population sampling
Polar bear tracking and how scientists use samples to track bears and see whether they are on the move.
A bowl of Teddy Graham cookies is introduced as a model of the Grizzly Bear population. The students remove a sample of bears, mark them with coloured pencils, return these bears to the bowl. Then the students resample the bowl of cookies, count the number of marked bears and complete the algebra to calculate the population estimate. This process is repeated and all population estimates are averaged, then the students count the number of bears in the bowl and compare their estimate to the actual number of cookies.
Learning Objectives:
Population ecology and estimating population sizes
ratios, cross multiplication, repeated sampling, and averaging
Intended Participants: Grades 2 – 12, geared up or down to different age groups
