Module VIII

Module 8

Explain:

There was quite a bit of new information for me this week, some of which is noted below:

Our World 2.0  is a wealth of information.  I could have spent a lot of time exploring the different links and concepts.    One area of particular interest was “The Shame of Concentrated Animal Feedlots” as it might relate to my students participating in an EarthKam project.  It is something to explore.  It is stated “…it is becoming a global problem as evidenced by the dead zones identified worldwide, much of them linked to the livestock sector.”  Some facts stated are: 1) 35,000 miles of rivers have been polluted by hog, chicken and cattle waste; and 2) 60-80% of all antibiotics used in the US are used in industrial food animal.

Dead Zones
Source:  Our World 2.0

In  Earth’s Cryosphere:  The Arctic it was stated  “Iceland’s ice sheet contacts nearly 10% of Earth’s glacial ice.”  That brings the reality of glacial ice concentration in to perspective.

Source:  Earth's Cryosphere:  The Arctic

Clay Good's (our fearless leader) statement that “Most Antarctic ice is continental while Arctic ice is mostly oceanic” makes sense... but hadn't occurred to me previously.

I was very interested in the Table of the reflectivity of various surfaces in “Albedo” (included below).   I didn’t realize they were using albedo in astronomy (as stated in the same article) to view outer solar system objects to indicate the surface ice content. 

Surface               Typical albedo

Fresh asphalt	0.04
Worn asphalt	0.12
Conifer forest (Summer)	0.08, 0.09 to 0.15
Deciduous trees	0.15 to 0.18
Bare soil	0.17
Green grass	0.25
Desert sand	0.40
New concrete	0.55
Ocean Ice	0.5–0.7
Fresh snow	0.80–0.90

A couple of new facts for me that were included in Cryosphere are:

-- Permafrost lies under 20% of Northern Hemisphere land areas and its thickness may exceed 600 meters along the Arctic coast of northeastern Siberia and Alaska.  Yikes…..

-- The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is grounded on bedrock below sea level and its collapse has the potential of raising the world sea level 6 – 7 m over a few hundred years.

And in closing... It amazes me that “The out-flowing undersea of cold and salty water makes the sea level of the Atlantic slightly lower than the Pacific and salinity or halinity of water at the Atlantic higher than the Pacific” as a result of thermohaline circulation.

Evaluate:

 I would like to share with my students the video  Steve MacLean:  Conservationist.    His statement that  “People are dependent on the natural systems and have an influence on the natural systems” is particularly powerful. 

Source:  Teacher's Domain

A couple of sources share the following about "Watching Ice Melt!" (Source 1 & Source 2). Predictions and hypotheses are the stuff that science is made of... This will be fun to share with my students.

Try This Trick!

Here's another demonstration in our exciting lab series, Watching Ice Melt!

Slightly overfill a glass container with ice cubes and then add water, just so that it doesn't spill over. Let's call this container the Arctic Ocean. Then watch as the ice melts. What will happen to the sea-level in your glass as the ice melts? What will your students predict?

Source:  andybrain

I will enjoy telling my students that a water particle they drink may have melted from glaciers, ice sheets or ground ice that may have been frozen for 10 to 100,000 years or longer, and that ice in parts of East Antarctica may be about 1 million years old.   I can just hear the "euwwwwwws" now.... 

I also look forward to sharing the Inuit Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change – Anchorage Declaration (April 24, 2009) to affirm how important youth are in the world’s issues from the perspective of leaders in many countries.

One way that I could demonstrate a statement made in Thermohaline Circulation article stated that “evaporation removes only molecules of pure water, resulting in an increase in the salinity of the seawater left behind” would be to have them make old fashion sugar candy. 

Extend:

Source:  Teacher Domain

 

I was struck by the statement at the end of the  Global Warming Threatens Shishmaref  video that  “between 1996 and 2006 Shishmaref lost 2,000 feet of coastline and 10% of its homes.”  This can be a good discussion question for students for problem solving.  This is not an event that could long ago have been planned for… as opposed to someone  building on a known and documented flood plain or (as occurs in CA) in a canyon that is frequently flooded or fire damaged.

I learned a great deal through my seasons with ALISON… which made the discussion of the Cryosphere and the insulating properties of snow, as well as the flux of heat through ice more understandable. 

I need to think a bit more on the statements that Clay Good made that “thawing is a cooling process…freezing is a warming process” in days to come. 

Three Colleagues:

Kevin H. did a nice job of connecting this lesson and info on cyanobacteria to his past learning... I look forward to exploring more info about the "cyano".

Like Carolyn R., I had not heard of Arctic haze previously... it certainly is an eye opener.

Congratulations on Lila Lee Little’s new blessing… who will give her many “learning opportunities” I am sure.  I appreciate it that her blog has so many “life applications”…