Sea Ice Extension for the Earth as a System Learning Activity

Gary Randolph - the GLOBE Program

and Walt Meier - National Snow and Ice Data Center

This activity has been reviewed by 2 review processes (view details)

This activity has been selected for inclusion in the CLEAN collection.
This activity has been extensively reviewed for inclusion in the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network's collection of educational resources. For information the process and the collection, see http://cleanet.org/clean/about/selected_by_CLEAN.
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.

Initial Publication Date: February 15, 2008 | Reviewed: October 22, 2012 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

The purpose is to identify global patterns and connections in environmental data contained in the GLOBE Earth Systems Poster; to connect observations made within the Earth Systems Poster to data and information at the National Snow and Ice Data Center; Sea Ice to develop an understanding of the interactions of Earth systems.

Global energy balance, Atmospheric and oceanic circulation, Climate ...(more) | High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14)

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Topics

Global energy balance, Atmospheric and oceanic circulation, Climate sensitivity and feedbacks, Climate feedbacks, Impacts of climate change, Geophysics, Physical , Marine Resources, Ocean-Climate Interactions, Snowpack and Snow Melt, Hydrology, Oceans and Coastal Resources, Climate Change, Global Change and Climate, Environmental Science

Grade Level

High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14)

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Context

Audience

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Better understand polar science and polar change issues. Learn about how energy transfer occurs at earth's surface, how impacts temperature and heat and how surface changes (i.e., loss of sea ice) impacts the energy balance.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Students will need to synthesize concepts such as energy, temperature, albedo; how changes to the earth's surface affect the energy balance. At the more advanced level of the activity, students can retrieve sea ice, ocean and air temperatures, analyze the data, and

Other skills goals for this activity

Students can be asked to write a report on their findings or give oral presentations. Working in groups would be a valuable way to collaborate on the activity.

Description of the activity/assignment

Maps displaying global environmental data (specifically Solar Energy and Average Temperature) through the course of a year are compared in order to understand how the Earth works as a system focusing on Polar Regions. Students then explore data from schools located in Alaska and Antarctica to understand processes that drive the temperature patterns; students then visit the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site to learn more about the Cryosphere (focusing on Albedo and Sea Ice); finally students visit NOAA's web site looking at data of Sea Ice data anomalies. (Link to the relevant pages in these web sites are listed below.)