Week Ten: Ice Sheets
Global Climate Change
Weeks 10, 11, and 12 make up a three-week cycle on ice sheets. Currently, you are in the Sphere Study week of the cycle.

This week you will become “experts” in the relationship of individual spheres to ice sheet changes. You will need to study the resources listed under Readings discuss your key ideas in the Classroom Sphere Study Space, then submit your team’s work for a grade.

Go to Group and Team Formation to find out which sphere you are studying during this module.

Read about the Ice Sheet event.

Assignments:

First, submit your individual questions, theories, and prior knowledge about this event and Earth Systems Science to your Portfolio in the Classroom.

Submit to the Portfolio in the Classroom your team's most accurate analysis of the Sphere - Event interactions with reasoning and support.

Suggested Activities for Your Students
Readings
Web Sites
Featured Data Connection
Opportunity for teachers to Publish

Suggested Activities for Your Students

Polar Ice -- What Direction Have Temperature Trends Been in the Antarctic?
NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Education CD-ROM.
http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_educators/cd_rom/supplement.php

Snow Cover by Latitude.   Using data sets from MYNASADATA students will create graphs comparing the amount (percentage) of snow cover along selected latitudes by date.   http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/L4_Harnden.html

Have students perform the following experiment that may demonstrate how poorly they think in geographic terms.

1. Ask students to name a well-known location that cannot be seen from the school (e.g., a shopping mall or a sports stadium).
2. Ask them how far away they are from that location and in which direction (e.g., south-southeast) is the location.
3. Have the students use a string, originating from the school's position on the map, to plot their locations on a city map.
4. Help students become oriented to the compass points.
5. Try this activity again with another well-known location.

You will want to locate other resources locally and on the Internet to supplement these. Post the resources you find in Resource Space in the Classroom.

Readings

Vanishing Ice, May 7, 2003
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/vanishing/

National Snow and Ice Data Center Annual Report, 2004,
http://nsidc.org/pubs/annual/NSIDC_Annual_Report_2004.pdf

Flannery, T.   (2005). The Weather Makers .   New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Greenland Ice Sheet Flows Faster During Summer Melting, Goddard Space Flight Center, June 6, 2002,
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020606greenland.html

Global Warming Increases Species Extinctions Worldwide, University of Texas at Austin Researcher Finds, http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2006/11/biology14.html

NASA Fact Sheet: Polar Ice. http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp_docs/Polar_Ice.pdf

Web Sites

ENN News Archive. 1999. Warm Arctic may enhance global warming . 1 March 1999. Environmental News Network.   

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2001. IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001 .    http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/

Impact of Climate Warming on Polar Ice Sheets Confirmed.   NASA Feature, 03/08/06, http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/ice_sheets.html

Podcast: National Public Radio: Science Friday June 2, 2006
Arctic Climate Expedition
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Jun/hour1_060206.html

Featured Data Connection

MY NASA DATA is an effort to develop microsets of Earth science data that are interesting and useful for, K-12 education. The datasets can be used with existing curriculum and enable students to practice math skills using real measurements of Earth system variables and processes.

MY NASA DATA microsets are created using data from NASA Earth science satellite missions and provide information on the atmosphere, ocean and land surface. Data is easily-accessible online along with lesson plans, computer tools and an Earth science glossary. You can link to the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) where you can select items (microsets of data) from the menu (list of datasets) using descriptions (parameters and time frames) of the items.

The LAS software allows access to scientific data referenced by latitude, longitude, and time. This is referred to as geo-referenced data. LAS can:

• show visualizations (color plots and graphs) of the data as requested
• provide subsets of the specific parameters in a choice of file formats   (e.g., as an excel file)
• present the numerical data collected

Opportunity for teachers to publish - Have you developed an original lesson plan using MY NASA DATA that worked well in your classroom? Please submit these lessons for review and possible publication on the MY NASA DATA website. Submit your original lessons to: essea@strategies.org .   Be sure to include your name, email and phone number.

Following is a suggested template for lesson plans using MY NASA DATA:

Lesson Title
Purpose
Grade Level
Estimated Time for Completing Activity:
Learning Outcomes
National Standards
State Standards (optional)
Pre-requisite knowledge or skills
Vocabulary
Lesson Links
Tools (what datasets, software, resources are needed)
Background Information
Procedure
Questions to be explored/answered
Extensions
Teachers Notes