Cyrosphere, Sea Ice

Cultural Connections

I took a seminar this fall in Seward focused, in part, on the cyrosphere. But before that, I had never really given earth’s vast frozen water storages much thought – other than to comment on how pretty various ice fields or glacier were in passing.

 

NASA mosaic image of North Pole sea ice.

The video on the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s introduction page has an impressive collection of images of Inuit life. It is not shocking that most of the activities pictured involve some aspect of the cyrosphere.

Climate change is a bigger problem for the Inuit of the Circumpolar Region than it is for the rest of the world because it directly affects every aspect of their daily lives. For the Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia, global warming is the farthest thing from an abstract concept. Rather, it means they might not have food to eat; they might not have clothing to wear.

Circumpolar Region - Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia

The 150,000 Inuit of the Circumpolar Region are represented by the ICC, which was founded in 1977 by Barrow resident Eben Hopson. Because climate change is such a deeply alarming and all-encompassing problem for the residents of the Circumpolar Region, the ICC is in a unique position to comment – and the rest of the world should listen!

It is semi-reassuring to hear that between 2002 and 2006, the ICC has made significant progress “communicating its Arctic manifestations to the world, working with those that hope to mitigate the current and future impacts of climate change, and supporting initiatives that aim to hold those responsible for climate change accountable to Inuit and others that are and will be affected.” However, we know there is still much more to be done.

April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean, and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. They deemed the climate change problem facing our earth a “climate crisis” that affects all “land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and our human communities” because of the “unbreakable and sacred connection” between all things.

 

ICC general assemblies are held once every four years, and provide an important venue for Inuit from the four countries to debate Arctic issues and to address developments taking place that affect the Inuit world. Assemblies also provide an opportunity to celebrate a rich cultural heritage and to strengthen the cultural bonds between all Inuit.

The IPGS Anchorage declaration that they developed at this meeting includes fourteen calls to action. In summary, it demands that states recognize the fundamental human rights of Inuit people to clean lands, air, forests, waters, oceans, sea ice and sacred sites.

That said, the declaration requests that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) assess short-term climate change drivers, particularly black carbon. It asks that the UNFCCC address climate change impacts and support a binding emissions reduction target for developed countries of at least 45% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 95% by 2050.  

In order to accomplish this, the declaration requests that states think of all resources as interconnected and common among residents of the world. States should pool knowledge and work together, take into account Inuit knowledge, and work to decrease dependency on fossil fuels. States should make the transition to renewable energy as soon as possible.

Additionally, the declaration requests that funds be made available for Inuit people to be involved in climate change monitoring and that risk insurance be available to allow them to recover from weather-related disasters, like some of the the things happening to the houses in Shishmaref.

I showed a different YouTube on Shismaref to my middle school science classes last year during our geology unit when we were studying erosion.

Shishmaref, Alaska

I remember being shocked when I found that video. In viewing Global Warming Threatens Shishmaref, I was no less shocked.  It is incredible that

1.      The sea ice surrounding the village is frozen all the way to Russia seven months out of the   year.

2.      40% of it has melted. And…

3.      Shishmaref lost 2,000 feet of coastline in 10 years, taking with it three houses!

Arctic Sea Ice is drastically decreasing!

In the video, Clifford Weyiouanna explained that whereas the Chukchi Sea used to freeze up in October, it now does not do so until the end of December. There used to be sea ice four-feet thick, but now it is only one-foot thick.

Shishmaref’s ice hunting ground has been significantly disturbed and the villagers are suffering because they are short on food. Huge climate-related storms threaten more of their coastline, homes, and even the airport runway. When the IPGS Anchorage declaration deemed the global warming problem a “climate crisis,” they were right!!!

Powerful storm surges have caused erosion problems.

This is a grave and depressing resource, but also an essential one. It allows viewers to really connect with the sometime abstract concept of climate change, and understand how crucial the problem is to the daily lives of community members right here in our state.

·         Arctic Climate Perspectives

o   I like how Arctic Climate Perspectives profiles various Barrow Iñupiaq community members and records their observations of climate change, as well as the effects they see the warmer climate having on their subsistence lifestyles. Like the residents of Shishmaref, Barrow residents are facing food shortages and danger while hunting due to melting ice.


Barrow hunters bring in a seal

o   I like how at the end of this clip, the Western scientific explanation for the greenhouse effect is included and then connected back to the subsistence culture of Barrow.  

·         Hunters Navigate Warming Arctic

o   Hunters Navigate Warming Arctic does a nice job of explaining how the hunter, and as a result, his community, are being affected by climate change. Because of the warmer weather, hunting seasons are shortening and prey is becoming scarcer and scarcer.

o   I think this resource would be a great way to engage some of the younger middle school boys in my class, who are very into learning how to hunt. It would open their eyes to some of the ways climate change can affect them.

·         Steve MacLean: Conservationist

o   This resource offers some inspiration to young Alaskans who are interested in conserving the animal and plant resources in our environment.

o   I like how Steve highlights a few of the qualifications students will need for this career choice, and ends by saying, “It’s absolutely worth it!” Great endorsement!

o   I also like Steve’s comments on not separating the people from the environment – we’ve both influenced each other for thousands of years, now more than ever.

Decreasing sea ice levels could potentially have some dire effects on Arctic animals that depend on the ice for habitat and hunting – such as walruses, polar bears, and seals – among other things. Consequently, the humans that depend on these species for food, clothing, and shelter will suffer. Hunting itself may become very dangerous due to unstable and shifting ice.

Here's a great article I found by D.C. Douglas: "Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Projected Changes in Timing and Extent of Sea Ice in the Bering and Chukchi Seas."

Western Scientific Resources

·         Earth's Cryosphere: The Arctic

o   This resource explained that the poles help regulate our planet’s temperature. The snow, ice, and clouds here reflect significant amounts of sunlight away from earth, helping to cool the planet.


Sea ice reflecting heat back into atmosphere.

o   In contrast, the ocean absorbs the heat. This pattern has caused the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to shrink dramatically in past decades. More open ocean water in the Arctic could lead to increased heat absorption, which will mean more melting sea ice – positive feedback loop!

o   It’s possible that the Artic Ocean could be ice-free by the end of the century. This would mean there would be even more open water to absorb heat – and our planet as a whole would be quite a bit warmer!

o   Although I found the content of this video interesting, the presentation seemed a little dry. I think it would be hard to keep students’ attention and that it might be better to shorten the resource if I used it in the classroom.

·         Arctic Climate System

o   I liked how Arctic Climate System used visual graphics to explain current patterns that influence the Arctic. These currents bring warmer waters into the Arctic, where the heat can be lost back into space.

·         How the Arctic Ecosystem Might Change

o   The video footage and audio in How the Arctic Ecosystem Might Change is amazing. This resource does a nice job of explaining the interconnection between all aspects of the food web, and how one tiny change can have widespread effects on the fragile ecosystem.


In the Arctic Food Web, one small change will have widespread effects.

·         Earth's Albedo and Global Warming

o   Earth's Albedo and Global Warming is a great interactive. I will definitely use this in my middle school science classes. It uses excellent diagrams and illustrations to explain how ice, water, and soot-covered ice absorb/reflect light differently.

o   It then explains the positive feedback loop being created: a warmer planet means more ice will melt, which means more water to absorb the heat (instead of ice to reflect it), which means an even warmer planet. And so on…

·         Arctic Sea Ice Observations

o   I also really like the interactive Arctic Sea Ice Observations, which explains that one way scientists track snow and ice cover, including sea-ice, is by satellite.

o   The features that allow users to compare sea ice levels in 1982 and 2007 and breakup times in 1982 and 2007 are powerful.

Interactive resources offer a hands-on element that video resources cannot. For kinesthetic students (like me!) who process information better when they can manipulate it and take their time to digest it, interactive resources really make a difference. I think it is important to have a balance of different types of resources in a classroom.

NASA’s Page on 2009 Arctic Sea-Ice does a nice job of summarizing the data collected by satellite, and also has some great links:

> Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis
> NASA Satellite Reveals Dramatic Arctic Ice Thinning
> Satellites and Submarines Give the Skinny on Sea Ice Thickness
> Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice

My Little Boy... Sawyer David Johnson!

Here are some new photos of Sawyer's first month and his first Christmas. You will have to cut and paste the address, but it is a public album. Happy Holidays!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045203&id=48101144&l=d93133c63e




Here is our newest blogger, Sawyer David. He's going to be a well-informed little Alaskan, for sure!


November 28th, 2010 5:10 am
7 lbs, 21 inches



2 days old

Changing Climate

***Does anyone know how to get rid of the white boxes in this blog??? I have tried retyping it and reposting it twice. Nothing seems to change.***

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.

 Sachs Harbor, Canada

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.

Let's Go Digital

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 2.9^oF/50y increase in mean annual temperature since the mid-1940's, and in Homer a 3.9^oF/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.

Life Before Oxygen

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!).

Carbon Atom

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.

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

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.

Soil Microbes and Global Warming

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.

Soil Food Web

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.

Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem

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.

Atmospheric Systems

Human activity in industrialized nations around the globe – including manufacturing, energy generating, and farming, among other things – burn fossil fuels and create pollution that is released into the environment.  Heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have all been known to cause health problems in humans, are some of the main pollutants of concern.

Air pollution

Although the pollutants are usually released at low or mid-latitude levels, they rise quickly because of convection and travel around the world on global wind patterns and ocean currents.  As scientist Glen Shaw explained in Arctic Haze, pollutants can travel 5-10,000 miles, reaching the Arctic in just a few days! These wind patterns can be observed on Google Earth Weather Layer.

Unfortunately, the pollutants don’t leave the Arctic anywhere near as quickly as they arrive. The pollutant-ridden air molecules, now cool and heavy, sink down because of convection. With little sun, especially in the winter months, to warm the air and allow convection to continue, the pollutants remain stagnant in the Arctic ecosystem, sometimes for months.

 

Convection

Shaw was one of the first scientists to encounter the problem of Arctic Haze when looking for a “pristine” environment to compare Arizona air quality to.  When he arrived in the Arctic, he saw instead what Yu’pik Eskimo Matthew Dean describes as a decreasingly transparent sky. 

A decreasingly transparent sky

There are several concerns about the effects that the pollutants may be having on global climate change. Many of these are outlined in NASA ARCTAS Mission. What is the impact of aerosols and other particles on radiation? Do they reflect sunlight away from earth? Do they cause warming in the atmosphere? Or cooling at the surface? NASA and other organization are looking into how the PCBs and other pollutants are affecting global warming, sea ice minimums, and rising sea and ocean levels.

We do know that contaminants such as mercury, PCBs, and other dangerous pollutants that are building up disproportionately in the fats of animals in the eight Arctic countries. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme has found record levels of gaseous mercury in Barrow and PCB over the entire Arctic ecosystem.

 

Biomagnification in Lake Ontario

This is a big threat to Arctic animals and the humans who eat them.  Animals exposed to the pollutants absorb them either through the water or air, and the toxins move up the food chain. Particularly toxic are animals at higher trophic levels – such as seals, polar bears, glaucous gulls, and toothed whales –  because they eat large quantities of food higher up on the food chain and thus are more adversely affected due to biomagnification. 

Because different Native populations in the Arctic countries eat different things according to culture, tradition, and availability, guidance concerning diet must be given locally. Altering traditional diets poses a dilemma for the world community because changing it could mean breaking with cultural and hunting traditions that go back hundreds of years. Additionally, established diets have health benefits that Native people have become accustomed to. For example, seal meat contains an important amino acid that can reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease.

Seal hunt

Extend

I read an interesting study, “High Levels of PCBs  in Breast Milk of Inuit Women in Arctic Quebec,”  written by Eric Dewailly, Albert Nantel, Jean-P. Weber, and Francois Meyer.

 

The study analyzed 30 mL breast milk samples (obtained within the first month of lactation) of 24 Inuit women who delivered in the Hudson Bay hospital in Povungnituk. The data was compared to 30 mL samples of breast milk from 19 Caucasian women who delivered in Quebec City and 29 who delivered in Baie Comeau, on the north shore of the St-Lawrence River.

 

Povungnituk, Quebec

The results were shocking – the mean level of PCBs in breast milk for Inuit women was 111.3 micrograms/L compared to 28.4 micrograms/L for Caucasian women. That is almost five times as much PCB in Inuit women’s milk – the highest levels ever recorded!

All women who volunteered to participate in the study filled out a survey telling what they ate during their pregnancy and while nursing. For the Inuit women, the mean consumption of marine mammals was 10 meals per month, fresh water fish was 18 meals per month, and sea fish was 9 meals per month.

As was explained in Contaminants in the Arctic Food Chain, studies done in West and East Greenland have also shown record high PCB levels in pregnant women.  In fact, 50% had so much PCB in their bodies that it exceeded the Canadian Action Limit of 100 micrograms per liter of blood.

A Google search will reveal the plethora of research being done to reveal that PCBs can affect fetal brain development. PCBs increase thyroid hormone (TH) metabolism and binding to TH transport hormones. This lowers circulating blood levels of TH. “Epidemiologic evidence suggests a link between PCB exposure during fetal development and subsequent cognitive problems in children, such as lowered overall IQ, attention and motor deficits, and impaired impulse control.”

The idea that the waste of industrialized societies is affecting the people who debateably have the the smallest carbon footprint  is terribly ironic and incredibly sad.  

Reading the study “High Levels of PCBs  in Breast Milk of Inuit Women in Arctic Quebec” and realizing that  some of the only people left on our planet that still live sustainably off the land are the ones whose babies are being sucepted to nearly five times as many PCBs as mothers in moreindustrialized areas is downright depressing.

It goes without saying that industrialized nations have a responsibility to “clean up our act,” especially in light of this relatively new research. As citizens, I think our most effective techniques (because we can all actually do these every day without any major lifestyle changes) are education – especially the informal kind, in daily conversations – and leading by example in the effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

A couple of other resources I found that I appreciated on Teacher Domain this week were Contaminants in the Arctic Human Population and the Antarctic Food Web Game. The Arctic Ecosystem, and Antarctic Ecosystem are also good.

Resources for Teaching the Western Side of Atmospheric Science How and why is the pollution of industrialized nations traveling around the globe???

Google Earth Weather Layer

This is a pretty incredible online tool. I really like how I can zoom in on the Kenai Peninsula and view the current temperature and cloud cover, and observe the pattern the storms are traveling in over the state.

Like the application that allows you to pinpoint earthquakes and their magnitude within the last hour, the weather layer is empowering for students because it allows them to have current information about their world.

Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere

I like how this resource allows students to get a good visual of the four layers of the atmosphere. The introduction explains right off the bat that density and pressure both decrease with distance away from earth, but temperature follows a different pattern. It is nice that students can see temperature, pressure, and objects entering the various layers of the atmosphere both separately and together on the graph.

 

Graph of Atmosphere Temperatures

I do a project with students where they graph the temperatures of various points in the atmosphere and connect them to view the zigzag pattern. (You might be able to find some data points at the Atmospheric Science Data Center for graphing.) This allows students to observe on their own where the temperature stops decreasing and begins increasing (end of troposphere, beginning of stratosphere), then stops increasing and begins decreasing again (end of stratosphere, beginning of mesosphere), etc.

After creating this graph, students are usually able to make fairly accurate predictions about where the atmosphere layers are, and then we discuss why these layers exist and what they mean in terms of human activity, such as flying planes and space shuttles.

I think this interactive would be a good “check” for students after completing their own graphs, especially because it explains that scientists have correlated changes in chemical composition with the temperature change.  

Compare and Contrast Warm and Cold Air Fronts

I have used the McDougal-Littell science program before, as our district has adopted a lot of Houghton-Mifflin products, so I have seen this diagram before. The interactive is a great aid to help students visualize what is happening as an air front moves it. They can observe the cloud types that form and make predictions about the resulting weather that might roll in.

Reveal Earth's Atmosphere

I love the images in this National Geographic resource. It would be great to view this resource before using Google Earth, since the satellite shots are similar. I like how the author asks viewers to think of the atmosphere as a fluid, rather than “air,” and shows Troy surfing both vertically and horizontally. Thinking of the atmosphere in this way helps in understanding the pressure that the atmosphere exerts on us down here at the bottom of the troposphere.  

Ocean Temperatures and Climate Patterns

The diagrams provided in this video clip help to understand how the atmosphere and ocean work together to determine weather patterns. I like how it explains how pressure differences create surface winds, that create surface currents, that in turn affect deep water currents because of convection.

This is sometimes a hard concept to convey to students, as they tend to initially think that wind is the main reason for currents. They forget (or never really understand) that in some places like the Mariana Trench, the ocean is as deep as 6.78 miles – way too deep and way too much water to be affected by surface winds!

With the younger students, I sometimes do a quick lab where they fill a clear basin with water and make five “floating boats” and five “sinking boats” out of tin foil (a quick lesson on factors that affect density right there). Then, the students become the wind by blowing on their oceans through straws. Of course, only the surface “boats” really move, and students get the idea that other factors must be affecting those deep ocean currents. Then, we can discuss convection, the Coriolis effect, etc.

Me doing the lab at the Seward Sea Life Center

This video would be a good follow up for that lab, but more appropriate for students 4^th grade and up, I would say, because it requires that one pays close attention to get then gist of it.

Giving Rise to the Jet Stream

I love how this resource explains how jet streams winds are created and how they affect global weather patterns in small segments illustrated by visuals. This always helps kids conceptualize a hard-to-grasp concept. Having students go through this in partners or one-on-one, allowing them individual time to process, could be very beneficial. I will use this one for sure! (I could not find the “5 day view of the jet stream,” though, on the intro page. Maybe it was just not loading properly. Did anyone else find it?)

The Jet Stream and Horizontal Temperature Gradients
I like how this interactive is guided by questions, so students have an expectation to live up and they understand what they are supposed to be getting out of the resource to right off the bat (not to say they can’t get more out of it, or explore further). It is interesting to watch the wind speed by altitude change as a result of the temperature and latitude.

Six Principles of How Weather Works and Global Circulation

I like the graphics provided by the explanations for weather by Weather School. These will help students to understand the concepts.

Water Vapor Circulation on Earth

The time-lapse photo of water vapor motion moving across the planet in the course of a year is pretty incredible. This is another resource that will give students current information and empower them as scientists.  

Connections between Culture, Climate, and Oceans

The seasons and typical climate-patterns of the year dictate the livelihood of Alaskan Natives who follow a subsistence lifestyle. Each month, new plants and berries ripen and new animals are ready to harvest and put up for the rest of the year, when food, or at least that specific type of food, may be scarce.

Tlingit and Haida scientist Dolly Graza explains that Native Alaskans are, by virtue of their keen observation skills, scientists without the formal education. “They would have to know which things were good for them, which things would make them healthy, which things they had to stay away from, when to move. […] They couldn't survive otherwise. I still believe that they were probably the consummate scientists that researchers could only hope to be today.”

Global warming and the changing climate is negatively impacting Alaskan Native’s subsistence way of life for a variety of reasons. As was explained in Warmer Oceans Affect Food Web, the sharp decline in the harbor seal population since 1989 may be partially due to a three degree increase in sea surface temperature in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea that took place in the late 1970s.

Sand lance and other small fish, which are the base of the food chain for many marine mammals and seabirds, were not able to adapt to the increased temperatures of their habitat. Their population decline can be linked to the subsequent decline in populations of larger marine mammals, such as the harbor seals, and the disruption of entire Prince William Sound ecosystem.

More about sandlance at Whalewatch.com.

Tlingit and Haida scientist Dolly Graza – who went to school for a degree in Home Economics and ended up instead with a B.S. in fisheries science from the University of Alaska, a M.S. in fisheries from the University of Washington, and a Ph. D. in marine policy from the University of Delaware – explains that she went for her advanced degrees because she wanted to make sure that there was Native involvement in policy development pertaining to Native Alaskan natural and cultural resources.  

Garaza sets a great example for modern Alaskan Native students, showing them that Natives have always been incredible scientists, and that their continued involvement in modern science is crucial to the sustainable management of Alaska’s cultural resources.

Those who live a subsistence lifestyle in Kachemak Bay, where I live, depend heavily on the salmon population, which sharply declined after the Exxon Valdez oil spill on Good Friday, in 1989. We have still not seen the recovery we are hoping to one-day see. This year, the Anchor River and many other rivers on the Kenai Peninsula closed early due to an insufficient run of kings and red salmon.  This module got me thinking about the other factors that may be influencing our salmon run. It is unfortunate that we don’t have more pre-1989 baseline data to compare to.

Clean up efforts after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Septmeber 1989

Other important natural and cultural resources here in Kachemak Bay and on the Kenai Peninsula include halibut, octopus, clams, moose, grouse, and a variety of fungi and berries – such as blueberries, high and low bush cranberries, salmon berries, currants, and watermelon berries.

A king salmon from Deep Creek, spring, 2010.

Octopus from Anchor Point beach, fall 2010

 Salmon run at Humpy Creek, fall 2010

Collecting fungi in Kenai, fall 2010

To learn more about Alaskan Native perspective on climate change, I watched  A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change on Teacher Domain, which highlighted problems that the Athabascan culture’s subsistence way of life is facing due to climate change.

The video explained that the Athabascan communities, like many other Alaskan communities, is highly dependent on the salmon population, which is, unfortunately, being negatively affected by climate change.

Salmon eggs require cool water and clean gravel beds. Warming oceans are causing permafrost melting, and substances to leeching out that fish cannot adapt to. Eroding land increases sediment in salmon spawning grounds, which can smoother their eggs; the eggs can also be affected by higher water levels and flooding.  The warmer water has left salmon looking for colder, glacier-fed creeks, and the Athabascan people looking for the salmon that have previously always returned to the rivers and streams they fish on.

The damaged eco-system makes it hard for the Athabascan community to continue their subsistence way of life – and not only because of the decreased and misplaced salmon population. Warming climates have caused blueberry patches to dry up and have allowed invasive species from more temperate climates to come in and force out native species, such as ptarmigans and gofers, which are grizzly bear prey. The whole ecosystem is affected. The effects of climate change are being felt first in the Arctic, but they will soon be felt increasingly drastically around the world.

Western Explanations for Scientific Phenomena

            I very much appreciate the variety of resources available on Teacher Domain. There are many compelling videos and interactives offering Western explanations for scientific phenomena, and lots and lots of others can be found elsewhere on the web.

Climate Change

This week, I particularly liked Air vs. Water Heat Capacity because of the easy-to-understand diagram-illustrated explanation it gave for why climate change is happening on Earth. I also liked the demonstration of heat-capacity in air and water (it’s amazing that water can absorb 1,000 times as much heat as air!). The balloon demonstration is a good idea. It will really stick with kids of a variety of ages.

Seasons

            I also liked What Causes Earth's Seasons, which I had used last year when teaching about causes for seasonal climate change on earth. The 3D images of the Earth spinning around the sun and receiving light at different angles seemed to help the students get a good mental picture of how and why the seasonal climate change occurs in different areas of the world when it does. I like how in Seasons on Earth, the Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperature maps are shown side-by-side. This gives another good visual.

            The Global View of the Seasons animation of seasonal vegetation change on Teach Domain provides another good visual for students. I have seen a similar thing like this done on phytoplankton growth during various seasons in the Bering Sea.

Heat Capacity

I enjoyed doing the lab, Does a Watched Kettle Boil?. I think it will prove to be a good resource to assist older students (4^th grade – 8^th grade, maybe) in understanding what heat capacity is, how heat is absorbed, and the rate at which it is absorbed.

It may be useful to do the same lab with different amounts of water, and calculate how much thermal energy in calories it takes for various amounts of water to reach the boiling point (100 mL vs 1,000 mL, for example). The lab could also be modified to measure the amount of time it took for the various amounts of water to cool off.  This might help students to understand why temperature in the night and day on the ocean does not vary greatly.

Density and Convection Currents      

            I also liked the density lab idea of using blue ice cubes and red water. I have been doing a similar lab involving warm and cold colored water to illustrate convection currents during units on plate tectonics and currents, but I think the ice cubes might actually be more effective.

The Coriolis Effect, Currents, and Gyres

            I liked the diagram provided in the YouTube resource The Coriolis Effect. And the The Coriolis Effect in Bathrooms does a nice job of dispelling the misconception that small amounts of water, less than 20 k in radius according to the video, are affected by the Coliolis Effect.

            A quick hands-on activity I have found to be useful in teaching the Coriolis Effect to have one student spin a basketball or other sphere while another student attempts to draw a straight line from the top to the bottom. Students can immediately see how rotation forces the pen to the right at the top and to the left at the bottom, just like the Coriolis Effect forces water and air to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

 

Good explaination at The Ozone Hole.

            Last week in my science classes, we learned about how ocean currents and the Coriolis Effect create the five major ocean gyres. We also learned about how an incredible amount of trash is collecting in them – especially in the North Pacific Gyre – before going out for a beach clean-up on Friday.  The Five Gyres Project and the Ocean Conservancy has an incredible amount of information and ideas about how individuals and classrooms can help.

Five Gyres Project has a many great resources for teaching about the 5 gyres.

Highlighting and Explaining Native Ways of Knowing Scientific Phenomena

There are lots of great resources on the web for explaining scientific phenomena in Western terms. It can be difficult, however, to find interesting and accurate resources that have to do with Native Alaskan lifestyle and traditional ways of knowing.

I appreciate Teacher Domain because it has these hand-to-find resources. I am particularly interested in how climate change is affecting Alaskan Native ways of life. I was able to find several good resources on this topic that I will consider using in my final project, including A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change, which I have already mentioned,  Arctic Climate Perspectives, An Unpredictable Environment, Climate Change in Alaska, Arctic Climate System, A Changing Arctic Ecosystem, Changing Arctic Landscape., Global Warming Threatens Caribou, Tracking Polar Bears, and Polar Bears and Climate Change.