Even though I considered myself fairly knowledgeable about glaciers (which I was thankful for while progressing through this module : ) I did gain new knowledge and new ways to show glacial movement including:
Documenting Glacial Change, which is six pairs of pictures of Alaskan glaciers taken 100 years apart. The
Vimeo of the Mendenhall Glacier and the comparison views of
Alaskan Glaciers were both very cool and most certainly useful. I also needed the review of permafrost and its importance in global climate change.
I particularly like the Alaska-specific examples of global climate change. Even though we live nowhere near the Arctic and especially because many of my students suffer from fairly severe parochialism and believe that their little corner of the world is actually the center of all there is (since in their limited life experience, it has been). These examples will help them see how global climate change is affecting others in their state, rather than others with whom they might never interact.
I had used the
drops in a bucket activity but lost the data (which undoubtedly is still on some errant piece of paper somewhere in my files). I’m glad to have a link to a digital source, so that I can use it once again. I had never seen the
1000 ice crystals activity and will add that to my list of resources.
I also found this
interesting information about the effects of climate change in the process of my research, “Antonio Stradivari, the famous violin maker, produced his instruments during the Little Ice Age. It has been proposed that the colder climate caused the wood used in his violins to be denser than in warmer periods, contributing to the tone of Stradivari's instruments.....Historian Wolfgang Behringer has linked intensive witch-hunting episodes in Europe to agricultural failures during the Little Ice Age."
I spent three weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii studying volcanology with other science teachers from the Pacific States. We visited the
Mauna Loa Observatory, where CO2 in the atmosphere is measured (since it’s far and away from sources of CO2). The researcher told us that the CO2 released by our van on the way up registered on his monitors, so he knew when we would be arriving shortly thereafter. Interesting too, that they had built a lava wall uphill of the facility to divert possible volcanic flow from the active volcano, which is showing
signs of inflation leading to a probable eruption (the first since 1984).
I'll be in Hawaii next week at this time, so have been checking on
current volcanic activity. I'm hoping to see lava flows while there. I'm considering a visit to the observatory too (although, I haven't yet convinced my husband of the fun in that). And, of course, this will need to be when I'm not sitting on the beach sipping something from a coconut, being careful not to poke myself in the eye with the little umbrella : )
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