This 5E lesson on glaciers opens with a clip from Ice Age and a demonstration of glacial melt involving ice cubes on various surfaces. For the Exploration, students execute experiments to model environmental conditions on glacial melt through using flubber, concluding with a webquest to connect these concepts to glaciers and changes in climate overall. Next, students graph […]
The lesson incorporates the Polar Literacy Standards with Polar Ice Data Stories (data from scientists in polar regions) as a game that culminates with student creation of a research project that is voted on for funding by their peers. Students will investigate differences between Arctic and Antarctic regions through game questions and analyze data provided […]
What does the color of the water tell you about conditions in marine and freshwater environments? What are the variables that affect that color? In this lesson students will participate in a variety of activities that allows them to brainstorm what impacts the color of our global water. They will perform research, analyze graphs and […]
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 […]
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. […]
“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) […]
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 […]
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 […]
Research programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) encompass the entire ocean, from the surface waters to the deep seafloor, and from the coastal zone to the open sea. The need to understand the ocean in all its complexity and variability drives MBARI's research and development efforts.