EARTH 2016 – Day 5

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Beth Marass, Jayne Ricciardi

Diving into Long Term Ecological Research

This project will introduce students to the Long Term Ecological Sites (LTER) https://lternet.edu. This project is very open ended, so teachers can allocate as much class time as their students need. After exploring the various sites during a class period, students will choose a specific site and create a research question to explore based on the data available at that site. During one or more class periods, students will download data sets from their site and create graphs to help test their hypothesis. The final product will be a scientific poster that students will share with their peers. The teacher can decide how much class time to allocate to poster creation and presentation. The poster will include their research, as well as its connection to the global ecology.

• Lesson Plan | Student worksheet

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Beth Marass, Jayne Ricciardi

A Whale of a Tale

In this lesson, students will be using the BLAST tool to compare mitochondrial DNA samples from unknown whale species to known sequences. Prior to this activity, students should have learned about cellular structures and DNA structure and function. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) may be a new concept for many students, since biology classes primarily focus their study of DNA on nuclear DNA. In order to help students understand the structure and function of mtDNA, there is a WebQuest about mitochondrial DNA that the students can complete in class or as a homework assignment.

• Lesson Plan | Presentation
• Scenarios: 1 | 2 | 3
• Unknown nucleotide sheet
• Student activity sheet
• Mitochondrial DNA Web quest

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Steven Allen, Anita Meelu

Big Ocean, Big Data

This lesson is designed to give students a “hands-on” experience with working with big data sets from chemical oceanography gathered by research cruises in order to help answer the question: Are the oceans changing over time? Students will be using data from the GLODAPv2 data sets. Students will be extracting, plotting and analyzing ocean data by using technology.

Lesson Plan | Teacher PowerPoint | How to Access Data tutorial

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Mary Ann Decker, Brenda Talbert

The Lost Seal of Antarctica

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to explore the differences in climate and ecosystems within Antarctica and between Antarctica and their local area. Students will locate and graph data to compare average temperatures, radiation and snowfall. Students will also demonstrate their knowledge of ecosystems of Antarctica by labeling a map.

• Lesson Plan
• Adam Wlostowski Video
• Antarctic Powerpoint w/ Sublimation
• Graphing worksheets: Lake Hoare | Palmer Station | Local Data
• Lake Hoare temperature radiation data
• Palmer Station data
• Sublimation PowerPoint
• The Lost Seal, by Diane McKnight

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Donna Barton, Jillian Worssam

What’s My Data?

In this lesson students will be able develop an initial understanding on the variety and complexity of polar research including some of the scientists who conduct this research. Using common core language skills students will CLOSE read researcher biographies and explore research websites to develop an initial understanding of polar scientific topics. Once the students have an understanding of the five highlighted research topics they will then observe graphic representations of research data subsets and matching to specific scientists

• Lesson Plan | Presentation
• Scientist Cards
• Student worksheet
• Data:
  • Wlostowski: Canada Stream | VonGuerard Stream
  • Key: Southern Ocean
  • Schofield: Adelie Penguin Adult and Chick Counts
  • Groeskamp: Salinity and Temperature profiles of Argo float WMO
  • Miles: Dotson Ice Shelf Data
  • Hill: WARM Data
• 6 Point rubric
• CLOSE Reading Scientist Bio Data Documents RUBRIC
• Additional Resources

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Joanna Chierici, Kathleen Couchon, Nancy (Harris) FitzGerald

What is the Bigger Picture?

“Hot issues, such as climate change may not be subjects of contention within the scientific community, but it seems clear that the science is not being communicated in a way that has the necessary impact. Although art cannot directly communicate science or change minds, it can create a space for dialogue around difficult issues.” (Kieniewicz)

In this lesson, students will combine art and science to interpret and illustrate graphs in order to convey the ‘bigger picture’ of climate change.

• Lesson Plan | Presentation
• Example graphs
  • Adelie Penguin Census
  • Annual mean temp at Faraday Station
  • Antarctic Glacial Melt
  • Arctic and Antarctic Anomaly
  • Arctic Sea Ice Volume
  • Average monthly arctic sea ice
  • CO2 concentrations and temperature trends
  • CO2 time series
  • Extent of Arctic Sea Ice
  • Greenland ice mass variation
  • Penguin populations
  • Sea Level Satellite Data
• Graph analysis worksheet
• Sources
• Exemplars: Penguin | Increase in Carbon Dioxide
• Rubric
• Extension: Lesson | Tutorial | Sample

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Katie Lodes, Jeff Robbins, Tara Sain, Miriam Sutton

Are Adelie Penguins Getting the “Cold Shoulder”?

This activity allows students to use real scientific data to explore ecosystem dynamics; including competition and predator-prey relationships among three Antarctic penguins. Students will manipulate data using XCel Spreadsheet software to generate a graph to illustrate population changes observed in Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo penguins between 1974 and 2010. A dataset for each species is provided. The penguin population and penguin diet datasets were collected in the Palmer Station Study region, which is part of the Long-Term Ecological Research program. This program began in 1992 and has been collecting annual data in this region (as well as numerous other regions in Antarctica) on a variety of ecological interactions.

• Lesson Plan | Presentation
• Data:
  • Adelie: Teacher | Student
  • Chinstrap: Teacher  |  Student
  • Gentoo: Teacher  |  Student
• Tutorial for Penguin Data using Excel Spreadsheets
• Graphing Directions
• Krill vs. Salps graph
• Data Trends: Teacher | Student

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Olivia Jern, Alia Thompson

Where There is Water, There is Life

Microbes, specifically diatoms are not only abundant in all ecosystems on Earth but have a profound impact on the functioning of the Earth as a system. Understanding and identifying diatoms becomes important to determine the success of the ecosystem. Humans also have a profound impact on the environment by transporting alien species through tourism and scientific research expeditions. Students will be exploring what endemic and cosmopolitan species are on a local, regional and global scale using a variety of activities and technology. Students will also explore the positive and negative roles humans play in changing an ecosystem.

• Lesson Plan | Presentation
• Diatom Morphology Cards (Word | PDF)
• Identifying Endemic and Cosmopolitan Diatoms  (Word | PDF)
• Native (Endemic) vs Invasive (Cosmopolitan) Species
  • Blank (Word | PDF)
  • Adapted (Word | PDF)
• Alien Species Invading Antarctica CC Questions
• Environmental Policy Memo Origami Fortune Teller | Rubric

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Marc Rubinstein

Float like a buoy, sing like a cetacean

Recent innovations in data-collecting instrument floats have revolutionized ocean sciences.   Over the past ten years more than 3000 such floats have been placed by ocean researchers throughout the marine world. These flexible, powerful, and relatively cheap devices provide a critical link in the data chain vital to understanding the complex interactions of the ocean system. Recently a new effort was launched to enhance the fleet of data floats operating in the Southern Ocean. These new floats have expanded our ability to collect biogeochemical data that researchers will need to unlock the complexities of the connection between all s oceans and the Earth’s changing climate.

In this lesson students will use the new data coming from these floats to make observations about currents in the Southern Ocean, and will interpret some of the data sets available to infer relationships between chlorophyll and oxygen in the ocean.

• Lesson Plan
• Longitude/latitude Summary Chart for 30 floats
• Sample of plotted float drift
• Antarctica Base Map from Discovering Antarctica

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Elizabeth Eubanks, Helen Haskell, Victoria Hill

Arctic WARMing Engineering Challenge

This project will introduce students to current research being conducted in the Arctic, through the work of Dr. Hill at Old Dominion University. The WARM research project aims to collect light intensity and temperature measurements under the Arctic ice pack to determine the link between light penetration and surface ocean warming. In this lesson students are challenged by Dr. Hill to support her in her research, by designing and engineering a new prototype of the WARM buoy. Students also will be analyzing numerical and photographic data and presenting their findings and design to Dr. Hill.

• Lesson Plan
• Video | Presentation
• WARM background resources
• WARM Data set for Buoy #3
• Data set support
• Photos
• Arctic lat-lon map
• Maps of buoy drift
• WARM Buoy diagram
• Grading rubric