Ice Ages and Climate Dynamics

• Observe ice ages through time and provide explanations for icehouse/greenhouse periods.
• Determine if Mars goes through similar Earth climate change
• Distinguish between different drivers of climate change at different scales
• Form an informed opinion regarding global warming

It is advisable that students are familiar with basic lithology and mineralogy to be successful in these activities and homework sets. This learning module may be utilized in any course where global warming and climate change are discussed.

Compiled In-Class Activities and Homework

• Instructor Version (Acrobat (PDF) 588kB Nov20 16)
  
• Student Version (Acrobat (PDF) 509kB Nov20 16)

In-Class Activity

• In-Class Activity 1: Ice Ages Through Time
  
• Student Version (Acrobat (PDF) 494kB Nov20 16); Instructor Version (Acrobat (PDF) 577kB Nov20 16)

Homework/Lab

• Homework 1: Ice on Mars
• Student Version (Acrobat (PDF) 503kB Nov21 16); Instructor Version (Acrobat (PDF) 565kB Nov20 16)
• Homework alternate: Make up your own exercise on global warming, or use other existing resources such as those on the SERC webpage: https://serc.carleton.edu/climatechange/index.html

• The In-Class activities do not need an image file
• Infuse data from http://climate.nasa.gov/
• Students can make graphs of change over time, focus on a specific region, compare Arctic and Antarctic, etc.....
• They can also compare Earth's poles to Mars poles OR evidence of ice on both planets

• It is advisable that students understand that Mars' axial tilt can change prior to completing Homework 1. This will enable students to properly evaluate the affect of Milankovitch cycles on Mars climate.

Methods of assessment are within each individual In-Class Activity and Homework.

1. Paleogeography through time YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dAmLnR3tA
2. Iceland glacier retreat captured by the Extreme Ice Survey: http://vimeo.com/5415263
3. Extreme Ice Survey website: http://extremeicesurvey.org