Temperature and Sea Level Rise

Engage

Engagement section is covered in the previous activity, Arctic Sea Ice Data and in Melting Sea Ice and Sea Level

Explore

30 minutes

1. Ask students to write a prediction in their science notebooks about what happens to a volume of water when it is heated, compared to its volume at room temperature. Will it become larger, become smaller, or stay the same?
2. Completely fill a conical flask with very cold water. (For increased visibility, add food coloring to the water.)
3. Place the cork in the stopper.
4. Slide the thermometer and glass tube into the holes in the cork. The water level should rise a short way into the tube.
5. Record both the temperature of the water and the water level in the glass tube.
6. Place the flask over the lamp.

Have the students draw the x and y axes of a graph on graph paper. Have them label the x-axis “time” and mark divisions for two-minute increments. Label the y-axis “height” which will be the measurements of the height of the water in the flask.

Turn on the lamp and have the students record the measurements on their graph every two minutes.

Explain

20 minutes

Discuss why the level of water in the flask changed. Ask students to reflect on the following questions in their science notebook: What does this experiment suggest might occur if the oceans warm? Where would you expect the increase in sea level to be the highest? Would you expect this expansion from the application of heat (also called thermal expansion) to be enough to cause coastal flooding?

Extend

30 minutes

If you would like to further explore the concept of density, you can change this activity slightly. Use salty water in the cup, and melt a blue-colored ice cube in the water. The cold blue water from the ice cube will melt and form a distinct layer on top of the warmer, clear salt water, showing that even though it is much colder, it is less dense than the salt water.

Another option is to use warm fresh water in the cup, instead of salt water. The blue water from the ice cube will be more dense than the warmer water, so the blue water will sink to the bottom. It will gain heat energy as it sinks through the warmer water column, so as it moves along the bottom it will begin to rise.

Evaluate

20 minutes

1. Revisit the ladder of learning: What do you now know about sea ice?

2. Ask students to write the second rung of ladder in their science notebooks. There should be a lot more information now.

3. Use a “stand up–hand up–pair up” strategy to share student writing. Students will find a partner and then take turns reading and listening to what has been written for the second rung. Repeat sharing five times.

4. Walk around and listen to students exchanging ideas, making sure main points have been addressed.

5. Reiterate the main points once the sharing is completed, and add main points to class ladder of learning.

Ask students: What might be impacts both positive and negative about melting arctic sea ice?