Sea creature from the depths of the Arctic....or something else? Student decorated styrofoam cups within nylon stockings-ready for their trip to the depths of the ocean off of Barrow Alaska. August 2014. Photo courtesy of Lisa Seff.
Under Pressure!
Air pressure is the force exerted by the weight of the air above you. Yes, air has weight! At sea level, the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere exerts about 14.7 pounds of pressure on every square inch of our bodies and everything around us. Scientists refer to this pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch as 1 atmosphere of pressure.
Wow, pick up a 14 pound weight and it’s pretty heavy. Why don’t we feel this pressure that’s exerted on us? Well, we’re used to it, and so is everything around us. Now consider the difference in weight between a bucket of air and a similar sized bucket of sea water. Which one would weigh more? If you were given the option to carry just one of those buckets on your head for 5 miles, which one would you rather carry? It’s likely that you chose the bucket of air (I would!) because it would have much less mass than the water and would therefore weigh less.
Now consider how much pressure is exerted on organisms and objects that live and move deep beneath the ocean surface. How does pressure change with ocean depth? How do marine organisms like the bowhead whale survive these crushing forces? How much pressure can humans withstand? How do scientists conduct research in the deep ocean?
Welcome to our Styrofoam Cup vs. Deep Sea Pressure Challenge!
Styrofoam Cup next to a yellow highlighter for scale. Before entering the ocean! August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
While PolarTREC educator Lisa Seff is staying in New York this summer due to a minor back injury, she and her students will be virtually joining the research team in Barrow Alaska this summer. Come join us as we explore the oceanographic conditions of the bowhead whale habitat! To help demonstrate the impact of pressure on objects, the Barrow research team is going to plunge styrofoam cups down with their research equipment to the bottom of the Beaufort or Chukchi Sea, and then bring them back to the surface! In June cups were decorated by students and teachers from Springs School in East Hampton New York. Students participated across many grade levels, including students in Lisa Seff, Kimberly Belkin, Tracy Frazier, Val Policastro, Lisa Dragone, AnnMarie Schuppe, Karen McKee, Sue Ellen O'Connor, Patricia Hicks, Leah Amicucci and Marisol Angulo's classes as well as students who work with PolarTREC teacher Susan Steiner from Murphy High School and Macon Early College.
Mrs. Seff's 6th Grade class decorated styrofoam cups and are ready for their trip to the depths of the ocean off of Barrow Alaska. August 2014. Photo courtesy of Lisa Seff.
PolarTREC educator Susan Steiner's students decorated cups and mailed them to New York! August 2014. Photo courtesy of Lisa Seff.
Amicucci and Angulo Family Cups!
AEP styrofoam cups by students in Mrs. O'Connors class! August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
What do you think is going to happen to the students cups? What will they look like after their deep sea dive?
Springs School elementary student cups. Decorated and ready for ocean deployment! August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
Springs School elementary student cups. What do you think will happen to them under the pressure of the ocean? August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
The cups left East Hampton New York today via the U.S. Post Office. With a little luck (Barrow is a long ways away) the cups will enjoy a successful journey to Barrow Alaska and find their way to the research team on Monday or Tuesday. I lined the cups up one by one in nylon stockings with twine to help keep them separated from each other.
Hoping to help protect the styrofoam cups, they were tied within nylon stockings. August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
These chains of cups will be placed in SCUBA dive bags which will carry them to the ocean floor with the research equipment. Keep your fingers crossed! It’s not always an easy journey to the bottom of the ocean, but if all goes well, we should have some interesting observations to make when the research team sends the cups back. To find out what the cups look like after their deep sea dive, check back with us in in a future journal (which will be titled: Styrofoam Cup vs. Deep Sea Pressure Challenge:Part 2!)
The cups will be placed inside of this SCUBA bag. The bag is made of a strong nylon mesh material, which will hopefully survive the trip to the bottom of the Beaufort or Chukchi Sea! August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
Springs School elementary student cups. What do you think will happen to them under the pressure of the ocean? August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
Springs School elementary student cups. What do you think will happen to them under the pressure of the ocean? August 2014. Photo courtesy Lisa Seff.
Springs School elementary student cups.
Why we're sending cups to the bottom of the Beaufort Sea! What specific questions do we want our students to consider?
This activity is designed to uncover, and relate to many oceans related topics, for students across all grades! Sending styrofoam cups to the bottom of oceans around the world has been one way that ocean explorers, and now our own student and community explorers from our school, can be involved in a simple and fun activity to connect to, and study, the complexity of our oceans, the organisms that inhabit them as well as the difficulties scientists face when conducting research at great depths.
Our students, depending on the classroom age and curriculum will be using the Styrofoam cups to focus on some of the questions below: 1) How do air pressure and ocean pressure compare? 2) How do ocean pressure and air pressure change with depth and altitude? 3) Is ocean pressure uniform? 4) Does the ocean pressure effect the density of the Styrofoam? How? 4) How do changes in ocean pressure effect organisms that live at great depths? 5) How do changes in pressure effect SCUBA divers? 6) With a NOAA bathymetric chart of the Barrow area, can students correctly plot the latitude and longitude to estimate immersion depth? 7) If we know the depth, can we calculate the amount of pressure that the cups will be under? 8) If we know the amount of pressure the cups were under, can we estimate the percent they will change?
If you’re interested in following our students as they explore these questions, stay tuned to upcoming “Styrofoam Cup vs. Deep Sea Pressure Challenge” journals! The cups will be heading back to our students in New York sometime in late September or early October!