Virtual Resources Collection

Overview

In this lesson, students will conduct an investigation to discover how the behavior of hermit crabs change as water temperature changes.

Goals

Students will understand and practice the steps of a science investigation through an investigation about hermit crabs’ reaction to changing ocean temperature. Students will understand that as ocean temperatures increase some animals will adapt and some will

Overview

Learn more about seasonal migrations of species around the world. These multidisciplinary hands-on activities focusing on art, observation, movement, and adventure. Resources can be used in formal and informal learning environments. All activities are designed to be possible as at-home/distanced activities.

Objectives

* Learners will understand the diverse forms of seasonal migration of animals. * Learners will make connections

Tiny Ice: Bits From Antarctica (a YouTube Series)

Overview

PolarTREC informal educator Jocelyn Argueta traveled to the South Pole in 2019 with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and Askaryan Radio Array Expedition. She created a YouTube series Tiny Ice: Bits from Antarctica to highlight the travel, science, and life at the South Pole, both in English and Spanish. In this 10-part

Descripción General

La educadora informal de PolarTREC, Jocelyn Argueta, viajó al Polo Sur en 2019 con el Observatorio IceCube Neutrino y la Expedición Askaryan Radio Array. Creó una serie de YouTube Hielo Pequeño: Pedazos de la Antártida para explicar el viaje, la ciencia y la vida en el Polo Sur, tanto en inglés como en español. En esta serie

Objectives

Students will be able to: * Analyze graphical data to draw conclusions * Compare and contrast the chemical structures of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide * Explain how differences in the structure of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide lead to differences in their reactivity and functions as a greenhouse gas * Argue how changing shrubbery impacts climate change

Objectives

Students will be able to: * Graph, analyze, and predict data * Develop claim, evidence, and reasoning * Explain how permafrost is made, current conditions, and its impacts on climate and humans

Preparation

* This lesson plan can be taught either in the classroom or virtually online. Instructions on how to teach both ways are given in the Procedure

On Monday, October 12, 2020, the German Research Vessel Polarstern sailed back into its homeport after completing a remarkable expedition to the Arctic Ocean. This day marked the end of the fieldwork portion of the 2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition in which hundreds of scientists from around the world spent a year in the Arctic gathering important climate datasets. Now a Virtual

Overview

This lesson will provide students with an opportunity to design and carry out an experiment that mimics the conditions causing accelerated ice melt along the face of the Thwaites Glacier off the southwest coast of Antarctica. Created by Sarah Slack during her expedition to Thwaites aboard the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer, this activity aligns with the Science and Engineering

Overview

This lesson about the factors affecting water density in the Amundsen Sea was developed by educator Sarah Slack during her PolarTREC expedition aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker. Part of the science mission was to create a detailed map of the seafloor at the face of the Thwaites Glacier, which revealed a series of channels that were conducting a

Overview

This lesson introduces students to the impacts of increasing ocean temperatures on marine life. Through this kinesthetic activity, students will learn more about marine ectotherms and what researchers in Antarctica have learned so far about how increasing temperature in Antarctic waters will affect their growth. Through the elaborate section of the activity students will connect what they learned about

Overview

This is a STEM-based lesson that can be taught in class or online. Students will analyze Weddell seal pup growth data, collected by the Growing Up on Ice, B-030, research team. To use this lesson virtually, include the data cards and have students either construct graphs and upload an image of their graph, or construct a graph and share

Overview

Students will engage in a virtual field experience on Huascarán Mountain in Peru, learning about how ice cores are collected and stored.

Lesson Preparation

Refer to Lesson Materials * Copies of Worksheets * Computers for students

Procedure

1. Read National Geographic Encyclopedia Entry Paleoclimatology and answer questions 2. Watch video Recovering Ice Cores (link in Resources). 3. Complete virtual

Overview

For this activity, the students are going to draw on their own knowledge and experience with weather to predict the current temperatures around the world and then compare their predictions with real-time weather data from selected locations around the world. The students will then be provided with several factors that affect both daily changes in temperature and climatological temperature

Overview: Bacteria Modeling

Objectives

Students will understand what bacteria look like with a model they create. They will also learn vocabulary associated with bacteria.

Lesson Preparation

1. KWL of a Microbiologist: knows (K), wants to know (W), and has learned (L)
2. Read book "What are Bacteria, Viruses, and Fungi?" by Tripti Nainwal Pages 2 & 3 3

Overview

Students learn about what type of polar animals live in the Arctic.

Objectives

Students understand the relationships between various trophic levels within the Arctic tundra.

Lesson Preparation

Prepare a picture sign for each of the organisms in the food web.

Procedure

1. KWL Chart on Polar Scientist: knows (K), wants to know (W), and has learned (L).
2. Read

Overview

The main objective of this activity is to increase ocean literacy. Users will be exposed to the Ocean Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts. This information is combined with other open educational resources, including streamed in YouTube videos.

Objectives

This online activity integrates the Ocean Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts created by the ocean sciences and education communities. The learning

Overview

The main objective of this activity is to increase climate and weather literacy. Users will be exposed to The Essential Principles & 12 Key Messages about Climate Science established by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. This information is combined with other open educational resources, including streamed in YouTube videos.

Objectives

In this online activity that integrates the www.globalchange.gov

Overview

NASA's Operation IceBridge images Earth's polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand processes that connect the Polar Regions with the global climate system. IceBridge uses a specialized fleet of aircraft and the most sophisticated suite of science instruments ever assembled to gather data on sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. The data gathered today will allow future scientists

Overview

NASA's Operation IceBridge images Earth's polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand processes that connect the Polar Regions with the global climate system. IceBridge uses a specialized fleet of aircraft and the most sophisticated suite of science instruments ever assembled to gather data on sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. The data gathered today will allow future scientists

Overview

This lesson was written for the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop and was inspired by the research work conducted off the coast of Barrow, Alaska by researchers Steve Okonnen and Patricia Yager with PolarTREC teachers Lollie Garay and Chantelle Rose. Students will engage in a series of exercises to investigate seasonal change in the Arctic ecosystem based on authentic

Overview

This lesson answers the question: How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts?

Objective

* Students will learn about temperature, salinity and their effect on density. * Students will learn that ocean currents are caused by differences in densities as a result of temperature and salinity. These differences allow ocean currents to circulate water

Overview

This versatile activity was inspired by my own Antarctic voyage (Lollie Garay, Oden Expedition 07) and The Amazing Race. As my students followed the journey through the Antarctic Seas on a USGS map, I realized what a great opportunity this was for them to "see" where I was in a part of the world so foreign to us

Overview

Using photos from a variety of websites, including the PolarTREC and SCINI websites, students will identify organisms to phylum and/or class level (e.g. polychaetes, starfish, brittle stars, sponges) and then research the primary foods that these organisms eat. They will then develop a simple food web for these organisms.

Objective

1. Students will identify eight to ten

Overview

Few people are familiar with the fascinating stories that Arctic and Antarctic explorers have to share. Students will research an explorer and create a dangling string with key information and highlights from the expedition(s) of that explorer.

Objective

To learn about polar explorers and polar expeditions.

Preparation

Gather needed materials. Have the explorers' information and photos

Overview

Learners from 6th – 12th grade will investigate different science projects in Antarctica through the PolarTREC and the USAP websites. They will then make a short PowerPoint (or similar) presentation to the rest of the class. Learners can work independently or in small groups.

Objective

Students will become familiar with the wide variety of science that occurs