Originally presented 19 Mar 2011
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is believed to be vulnerable to climate change as it is grounded below sea level, is drained by rapidly flowing ice streams and is fringed by floating ice shelves subject to melting by incursions of relatively warm Antarctic circumpolar water. To predict what will happen to the present ice sheets when the climate continues to warm we need to understand how the ice was flowing during past glaciations and how the ice sheets and the ice flow have changed when the climate was warming up after the glaciation. This is important since the loss of ice sheets is related to sea level rise, which will also affect the coast of the United States.
This session will describe how we collect sonar measurements and sediment samples from around the continental margin of Antarctica using ships. With these techniques we image features on the seafloor that were created by fast flowing ice sheets and icebergs during glacial times when the extent of the sheet in Antarctica was much larger then today. We use these data to reconstruct how the ice was flowing and how the ice retreated when the climate was getting warmer.
Introduction to this Workshop
View the slideshow for this workshop.
Cutting-Edge Research
Frank’s LDEO web page
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~fnitsche/research/fon_research.html
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/melting-glaciers-tracking-their-path
Other outreach web pages:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/cryosphere.html
http://nsidc.org/pubs/education_resources/index.html
Classroom Resources
COSEE (Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence) Networked Ocean World — Ross Sea Connection
South Pole.com Timeline of Discoveries in Antarctica
ANDRILL ARISE (Antarctic Research Immersion for Science Educators)
International Polar Year (IPY) 2007 – 2008
Other Resources for This Topic
(Frank’s LDEO web page, not much information for this topic so)
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~fnitsche/research/fon_research.html
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/melting-glaciers-tracking-their-path
LDEO Marine Geology Data System Media Bank
Other outreach web pages:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/cryosphere.html
http://nsidc.org/pubs/education_resources/index.html
Modelling West Antarctic ice sheet growth and collapse through the past five million years
Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling
International Polar Year (IPY) 2007 – 2008
Integrating Educational Technologies
General suggestions: Integrating Educational Technologies into Your Classrooms
Your assignment:
Communicating halfway around the world–such as with Antarctica–used to be limited to written messages and take months. But electronic communication make it possible to engage in oral or written exchanges that are almost as fast as cross-town exchanges.
Among formats possible for such communication are Skype, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and e-mail. These make it possible for your students in the classroom to interact with research scientists in Antarctica.
1) What characteristics make electronic communication effective as a classroom teaching tool?
2) When should electronic communication be used for full-class instruction, and when should they be used for small groups or individual projects?
3) Describe strategies to locate suitable electronic communication resources for your classes.
and
4) Design a lesson plan that incorporates at least one electronic communication format.
E2C Follow-up:
You may send your model lesson and other responses to this “assignment” to michael@earth2class.org. If suitable, we will post your work in the E2C lesson plans and/or add them to this section of the Workshop website.