Module 9

Essential Question:How are climate, terrestrial ice and Alaskan indigenous cultures all connected?

Explain: Scientists have discovered a wealth of knowledge by studying the layers we find in nature today . Whether it be layers of glacial ice, mud from the bottom of a lake or the layers(rings) of a tree, nature has archived thousands of years of climate history for us to interpret. When examining the major changes in climate that have taken place for the last several thousand years we notice that one degree Fahrenheit increase (more in the arctic climates) that has taken place in the 20th Century has proven to be extremely significant in terms of rapidly speeding the melting of the earths cryosphere over the past 1,000 years. Changes that we use to think took thousands of years are taking place in our life times and before our very eyes. Even though this has caught the attention of environmental scientists, indigenous cultures all across the arctic are noticing changes that are causing them to alter their lifestyles. these changes include:

1. Shorter winters and longer summers

2. Disappearing lakes due to melting permafrost

Causing significant increases in methane. A greenhouse gas 23x stronger than carbon dioxide

3. Changing weather patterns

4. Changing animal migrations

5. Changes in plant and animals that are replacing traditional ones

Just to name a few!

Extend:

Extreme Ice Great time elapsed photography as well as additional photos and videos I found on this site

Documenting Glacial Change Survey Awesome TD resource showing before and after photos showing glacial recession and forest succession.

USGS, Introduction to Glaciers Very use full information on all of the USGS links in this module. These sites would make great pre-lesson discussion questions to spark student interest.

Evaluate: This was a long module!! However it did provide more resources that I can use in my own lessons. I felt that a few of the digital resources were redundant and could be eliminated without diminishing the lesson, thus shortening the lesson.