Glacier Dynamics and Glacial Landforms
Initial Publication Date: November 24, 2014
Summary
Students use a computer model to simulate glacier dynamics and navigate to locations in Google Earth to identify glacial landforms and geomorphic processes.
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Context
Audience
The activity is used in an online undergraduate introductory physical geography course. The focus of the course is landforms and soils. The course is predominantly composed of non-majors.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
None
How the activity is situated in the course
This is a stand-alone exercise that reinforces concepts introduced in lecture.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Become familiar with how glaciers expand and retreat over time and landforms and geomorphic processes associated with glacial landscapes
Understand how environmental conditions affect glacial mass balance
Understand how ice flows within a glacier
Determine how multiple glacial advance-retreat cycles impact landform preservation
Identify alpine and continental glacial landforms on topographic maps and aerial images
Understand how environmental conditions affect glacial mass balance
Understand how ice flows within a glacier
Determine how multiple glacial advance-retreat cycles impact landform preservation
Identify alpine and continental glacial landforms on topographic maps and aerial images
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Other skills goals for this activity
Description of the activity/assignment
Students must download and install and simple, free, Java-based computer model to simulate glacial advances and retreats. Students alter temperature and snowfall rates to model how the glacier responds. A variety of tools within the model are used to measure glacier dynamics. In the second part, students visit a variety of locations within Google Earth to identify landforms, determine whether they are erosional or depositional, and answer other related questions.
Determining whether students have met the goals
Students complete the exercise during the week it is assigned. Upon completion of the exercise, students must complete an online quiz that consists of the same questions in the exercise. The online quiz is within the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) online learning platform, so answers are automatically graded and imported into the student's grade book.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.Teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment:Glacier Dynamics and Glacial Landforms exercise (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 31kB Nov23 14)
- Instructors Notes: This exercise was developed for an online class and intended for students to work independently. Part 1 uses a fairly simple-to-use computer model to simulate glacial dynamics. The computer model is available for free download at http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/glaciers Part 2 utilizes Google Earth and requires downloading the GlacialLandforms.kmz file.
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Glacier Dynamics and Glacial Landforms answer key -- private instructor-only file
HideOther Materials
- GlacialLandforms (KMZ File 2kB Nov23 14)