Arctic Sea Ice Data

Engagement

45 minutes

Lead students in a 3-2-1 activity:
Ask students to think about what comes to mind when they hear the word “arctic.”
Allow students to free write for five minutes, capturing the thoughts that come to mind.
Then ask them to review their writing, and choose three main ideas from their writing. Students then pair up and share their three ideas with their partner. Between them, they now have six ideas and they must come up with two words that best describe the “arctic,” by consolidating their own and their partner’s ideas. Allow five minutes or less for this. Each pair then joins with another pair (there are now four words) and this foursome must come up with one word that best represents their idea of the arctic. Allow five minutes or less for this. Ask each group to share their word and why they chose that word with the class. Post all words on the board or chart paper and place it in a visible location in the classroom.

Show the video “Alaskan Native Thoughts on Climate Change”

Ask students to choose one word to describe the arctic, based on the video.
The intent of this activity is that they will choose the word “ice.”
Allow students to comment on the short video.

Show the Shrinking Ice Headlines PowerPoint that highlights past and current news about climate change and the changes in arctic sea ice. As students watch, they should look for impacts of ice melting. After viewing the video and PowerPoint, ask students to respond to the following question in their science notebooks:
“What do we know about sea ice and how it is changing?”

After students have had time to write, ask them to share their responses.

Alternate activity:

Ask students if they have heard about the arctic ice melting. Allow them to share what they know. Ask them to share ways that people can find current information about arctic ice. Their list will probably include television, radio, newspapers, internet, etc. Tell them that they will search the internet for headlines about the melting of arctic ice. Brainstorm some of the search strings they might type into a search engine such as Google. (Some options are “melting arctic ice’, “arctic sea ice”, “arctic ice”). Remind students to look at where the headline is from. Students will find a headline and write it down along with the source of the headline. Then they will read the associated article or information, making note of 2 or 3 main points of the article. Allow 15 or 20 minutes for this activity. Then share the headlines and points they students have noted. You may want to record the information on chart paper or the board. The resulting chart will likely reflect different points of view regarding the melting of sea ice and will provide an opportunity for a class discussion regarding the uncertainties in science.

Begin a “Ladder of Learning” about sea ice: Record student responses at the bottom of a piece of chart paper to create the first “rung” of the ladder. Ask students to create this “Ladder of Learning” in their science notebooks and create the first rung by writing the information from the chart.

Exploration & Explanation

45 minutes

Distribute the arctic sea ice data handout to students. This data shows sea ice extent, but does not provide information about ice thickness.

Discuss the following questions with them:

Where do you think this data comes from? (Satellites. This helps explain whay data does not exist before 1979, since reliable data did not exist before then).

What are your first impressions when looking at this page?

If you were a scientist and given the task of sharing the news of this data with the world, how would you present it?

What would you expect to see if you picked one year and tracked the sea ice in the arctic?

Have students make a prediction in their science notebooks, then graph one year either by hand or using Excel. Students can choose a line graph, bar chart, or possibly a pictogram. After their graphs are complete, ask them to respond to the following question in their science notebooks:

According to your graph, what happens to the sea ice over one year?

Allow time for students to share their answers.

Present this question to the class:

If the ice is fluctuating yearly, how would we go about trying to communicate what our data shows about sea ice over many years? Consider all of the students’ ideas, and suggest a scatterplot if they don’t come up with that idea. Show the scatterplot example to students, and depending on student level, review how to make a scatterplot using one month of the year.

Individually or in pairs, students choose a month of the year to track sea ice extent. Students can create a scatterplot graph either by hand or by using Excel.

Explanation

10 minutes

• Have students describe the overall trend of the data in their science notebooks, and make a trend line (line of best fit) for their graphs.

• Ask students to respond to the following questions in their science notebooks:
  What is going on with respect to sea ice extent in the years from 1979 to present, as shown by the data?
  Why do scientists use graphs instead of data tables to present large amounts of data?

• Have students share their scatterplots with the class and discuss their answers to the questions with the whole group.

• Show students the sea ice animation. Note that the years of the animation correspond very closely to the years they graphed. Ask students what they noticed. Was the ice ever similar to September 2007 during the animation? Why do they think the sea ice extent in 2007 is less than any of the previous years in the animation?

Extension

You may show or have students watch the video “George Divoky: The BirdWatcher Who Saw the Future” which demonstrates a change in a population of black guillemots near Barrow, Alaska. The guillemots are ice-dependent arctic nesting seabirds. A 30-year study has documented changes in their habitat related to a retreating ice pack, and changes in their success in reproduction related to the distance they have to fly to find food, as well as the movement northward of horned puffins, a subarctic species. This video is a good introduction to the concept that physical changes in climate and ice and have effects on specific animals and their ecological relationships.

Circular Connections

Formative assessment: walk around and listen as students describe their observations to each other.