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Cultural Connections
Cultural Connections
As noted in Inuit Observations of Climate Change, Sachs Harbor residents such as Rosemarie Kuptana - who depend on the land and sea for clothing, shelter, and food - are really feeling the effects of climate change.
As a result of the increased temperatures that have been recorded by scientists such as Dyanna Riedlinger, the Inuvialuit people have noticed an increase in flies and other insect populations.
Peter Esau comments on how his community has had to adapt its polar bear hunting strategies, varying the time of year that they go our because of the warmer climate. Women, who usually butcher and clean the animals, have noticed a drop in meat quality.
Sachs Harbor residents work with Western Scientists in order to pool knowledge to better understand how the Arctic is being affected by climate change. Identifying and understanding is the first step in the quest to slow the problem.
La'ona DeWilde: Environmental Biologist, whose Athabascan name means “the rock,” works to help Alaska Native villagers gather data that can be used collaboratively with Western science to better understand climate change and water contamination.
Over the past few decades, small nomadic groups in Alaska began to settle down into outlying villages, many of which are not charted by geographic information system (GIS). La’ona records local travel routs with her Global Positioning System (GPS), and from there they can be entered in GSI.
As populations of these small villages have grown, the need for water and sewage systems has increased. La’ona teaches water quality and climate monitoring and assists villagers in beginning to collect water samples and climate data, which can then be used to help solve the problems.
In Alaska Native Teens Help Researchers, Terry Chaplin and Cheryl Johnson involve teen community members in collecting data on global warming in Alaska. This sounds like a great project! I find that students are much more engaged when they are working on a project that relates directly to their community and lifestyle.
My middle school students are currently working on individual Applied Science Projects. They each chose an issue that affects our Anchor Point community. Students identified a problem in the community, did background research and collected baseline data, and then came up with a plan to implement a change based on their research and baseline data. After their plans are complete, they will analyze their data and make conclusions on whether or not they were effective.
Next year, it would be interesting to teach a climate change unit early in the year so that students would be motivated to choose a topic from this area.
Meteorology stations in Kenai have recorded a 2.9oF/50y increase in mean annual temperature since the mid-1940's, and in Homer a 3.9oF/50y increase in the same period. Besides this increased average temperature, there are many visual effects of climate change in our community on the Kenai Peninsula.
Some examples:
1. The glaciers in the Kenai Fjords are retreating. I took a seminar this fall in Seward on this topic and was amazed how much glacier we’re losing every year!
Aialik Glacier and other glaciers in the Kenai Fjords are retreating at faster rates than in the past.
2. Trees like the Sitka Spruce are growing at higher and higher elevations in the Kenai Mountains, indicating that the air might be warmer up there than it was in the past.
Young Sitka Spruce are growing at higher elevations than before.
3. At Bernice Lake and some other lakes in the Skilak wilderness, there are boat docks that no longer reach the water, indicating that water levels in these lakes have dropped significantly.
The boat dock at Bernice Lake no longer reaches the water.
Western Scientific Approach
I found the Western scientific resources in this module to be particularly compelling. All the resources this week were really interesting and new to me, but my favorites and the ones I think will be most useful were Soil Microbes and Global Warming and Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem.
Carbon Connections
The Elements: Forged in Stars and The Origin of the Elements explained that through fusion, stars create all the elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. As iron molecules fuse together in the star’s core, gravity causes the core to collapse.
The resulting explosion sends outer layers of gases and heavy elements flying into space, which would account for some of the carbon dioxide that came together to form earth’s early atmosphere.
An artist's interpretation of a supernova explosion, sending gases and heavy elements into the universe.
The interactive Periodic Table on Teacher Domain is a great resource after viewing the two above videos because it further illustrates relationships among elements. I especially like the Chemical Bonds tab, and I think the Mystery Elements section could be adapted to make a great assessment for a middle or high school class.
One thing I have found while teaching science in a religious community is that it pays to tread lightly when teaching theories of universe and planet formation. Students tend to shut down when information is presented to them in a new or conflicting way than what they have previously learned, and for some students, this causes them to shut down to science entirely.
What has worked well for me is to present information in a way they have fuse with what they already understand or believe, and also make sure to offer time for confused students to meet in smaller study groups outside of class.
In Life Before Oxygen, I learned that the Earth’s early atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide (100 times as much as is in our atmosphere today!).
It is amazing to me to think that single-celled cyanobacteria converted all that carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis – enough to make up 21% of today’s atmosphere! Thank you, cyanobacteria, for creating an atmosphere we – and the rest of the aerobic organisms – can live in today!
It is also interesting to think about the anaerobic organisms, like those that made up all life on earth 3.5 billion years ago, still thriving in oxygen-free places like volcanic hot vents.
I liked Life Before Oxygen because it helps with understanding that the earth, our atmosphere, and the universe is always changing.
By reminding us that all matter-based life forms are carbon based, the video highlights carbon’s importance in our ecosystem. This is a good reminder, because it is easy to lose sight of how essential this element is when worrying about there being too much carbon in the atmosphere.
The video succinctly explains that carbon is a versatile element because it can hook up with four different atoms and build up to be a protein. It is made easily in stars, which accounts for it being one of the most common elements in the universe.
Microorganisms, called microbes, live in the soil and produce nutrients plants need to grow. Although it was previously thought that the microbes were dormant in freezing temperatures, scientists such as Chien-Lu Ping from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks have found that the soils in the Arctic are kept warm enough by insulating snow for the microbes to remain active and nutrient-producing all year (the soil needs to be -10 degrees C/14 degrees F for microbial activity to occur).
Microbes in upper soil layer break down leaves and other material for food, and in the process, create nutrients for plants. The scrubs can then grow, which further warms the soil. This encourages more microbial activity and consequentially, more plant growth in the pattern of a positive feedback loop.
The problem is that when microbes break down material for food, they create a significant amount of carbon dioxide as a byproduct, which is absorbed into the atmosphere.
As more plants grow and the permafrost thaws, microbes could produce more carbon dioxide, thus increasing greenhouse gases. Scientists such as Josh Schimel of the University of California wonder how quickly the microbes will be able to decompose plant matter as the temperatures change.
I really like this resource – it is my second favorite of the module. It explains another element of climate change and, at least for me, hammers home how connected everything is in our ecosystem of the world.
This incredible video, like Soil Microbes and Global Warming, really highlights how interconnected everything is in the food web and also how dependent all life is on carbon. I will definitely use this resource in my middle school science classes. I also think it could be adapted for the younger students, although the vocabulary is a little bit advanced for students in grades lower than fourth. If the concepts and vocabulary were pre-taught, I think even second and third graders would benefit from this resource.
Climate Control Issues
Global Warming: The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect gives a great explanation of the greenhouse effect, especially for people who don’t understand how global warming could occur, or who do not believe that it is happening. I like how the video states, “it’s as real as gravity.” I was surprised that the average temperature of the earth is 59 degrees F.
Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect uses a great visual of heat emission from a scientist’s face to explain how increased carbon emissions are increasing the amount of heat that is stored in the atmosphere. And voila, global warming. I like this resource because it gives a great visual. As the gas is released, students can see the infrared image of the scientist’s face disappearing on the camera screen because the carbon is absorbing the heat radiated from the face before it can reach the screen. If the area between the face and the camera was the atmosphere, it would have warmed up a bit!
Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect does a nice job of explaining that unusual weather patterns, such as the floods in Bangladesh and the drought in Midwest, are a result of increased carbon dioxide emissions (25% increase in the last 10 years!) from human activity such as land clearing and forest and coal burning. CFCs are the second worst offender, destroying the ozone. Methane, which leaks out of coal mines and is also formed in by cattle digestion process and in rice paddies, is the third worst offender. I liked how the video compared global warming to a car in the sun – in both, solar energy is absorbed, but cannot get back out through the glass/atmosphere, and as a result, temperatures rise! This is an easy-to-understand visual comparison.
Capturing Carbon is a very hopeful video. It’s incredible that there may be some sort of solution. It would be a fun resource to examine with students, since a 12 year old is responsible for the whole idea of the carbon-capturing mechanism!
After watching this resource, I like the idea of using the interactive Carbon Capture: Where Do We Put It? to help students understand the complications of devising a solution to the problem of global warming. I like how this interactive points out the strengths and weaknesses of each potential solution. For my students, it would be helpful to create a worksheet or some other guiding mechanism to help them stay on track with the reading and process the information provided.
Carbon Cycle Diagram is a nice visual of the tens of billions of tons of carbon that moves between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere annually. It would be useful in the classroom because students can easily see the stored carbon in black and the carbon fluxes in purple.
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