I have been debating which project to post here...
I will do them all eventually...
Try to create an algorithm to predict the ice going out on the Nenana.
Set up time laps photography and a feature study of the Mendenhall glacier. (like EIS)
A service learning project to reduce carbon emissions.
Weather and Climate change in Juneau over last 75 years based on local photos and info.
all will involve cultural connections in some way...
I think we will look at the change in weather and retreat of Mendenhall Glacier using as many photos as we can collected from our families and friends in Juneau. Any weather related photos will help in this project.
US forest service photo
We will also gather weather information from as many sources as possible next week in the computer lab and chart the average monthly temperatures for as far back as we can find data.
I saw David Katzeek this week and will invite him to speak to our class and share his memories of the weather in Juneau. Hopefully he can also provide some other cultural resources to help us do a good job on the project.
My students seemed to be most interested when we talked about Juneau, so we will use their family resources to work on this together. Any old photos and info of how it use to be in Juneau will be welcome.
Handtrollers 5/28/08
Mendenhall lake 2/3/10
The students will scan the photos they bring to school or email them from home. We will set up a digital library of all the pictures and captions to go with them, interview people who have lived in Juneau a long time and record their observations and stories.
We will create a blog and otherwise share the info when we are done about how the weather use to be....
Like all good projects the students will do most of the work.... :-)
I hesitate to call permafrost melting cool, however, the release of methane gas that had been stored safely in the permafrost is now being released and as Clay has pointed out; with a bic can be kinda fun....
As I started through this module I got totally sidetracked on methane gas burning over frozen lakes and thermite explosions when Ice is involved... even Mythbusters confirmed it but could not explain the explosion!
I also learned about the extent of the Tlingit land and how they were forced out of Glacier Bay by advancing ice.
Glacier bay: Nasa
I learned The Taku Glacier had a positive mass balance from 1946 until 1988 and may begin to retreat if current trends continue.
Taku Glacier by susan dain-owens 2007
Ablation: The annual loss of snow and ice from a glacier. The opposite of which is accumulation.
A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. The ongoing study is the latest in a series of reports that found glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago.
If all the terrestrial ice melted sea level could increase 80 m. As shown in this interactive resource from NOVA. If the ice melts.
Extend
I showed many of the videos from this weeks module! As we wrap up our unit on Climate and Weather, we have explored many factors that play a role in Global warming. I have tried to balance the natural and man made sources that many scientist believe have lead to an increased rate of global warming.
The video on climate change was especially interesting to my class as it showed these changes can happen within ones lifetime..... not only slowly leaving time to adapt.
USGS photo
Washington’s South Cascade glacier has lost half its volume since 1960 and is predicted to lose an additional half in the next 100 years.
We also covered agian the Carbon Cycle and students decided the greatest impact would be to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use by replacing oil and coal burning with Tidal, Wave, Wind and Solar Power!
Evaluate
We also discussed possible changes here in Juneau if global warming continues, some student responses are listed here:
less snow for skiing
nicer springs and summers
better growing seasons for plants
bigger deer racks
After watching the video on climate change and how it can happen so fast we also talked about what if it got cold again...fitting for the last few weeks.
more snow for skiing
longer, colder winters
advancing glaciers may force people to move (mendenhall)
harder for animals to survive (less vegitation)
Wow Dan, your done! I too marvel at the accomplishments of early navigators like Vancouver just to survive the obstacles in SE Alaska waters. Of course the Tlingit did it long before them all....
Dave, when I look at the graph from "climate change" I see us in a pretty long, "stable", temperature range when compared to before 8,000 BC.
Doug, I also liked the timing of this modul with all the great info. on glaciers for my class to view!
Explain: Cryosphere: all of Earth's surface where water is in solid form. When I first read that word I wondered if I had studied it before....or if it was a sub-category of the Troposhere or something I had forgotten. I'm not sure if I have studied it or not but, I've got it stored now!
from the national snow and ice data center
ocean
land
ice sheet
snow
sea ice (low concentration to high concentration)
The colors of the sea ice scale show up in my unpublished blog.... but not here?
I also learned about the permafrost melting around Alaska and how those who depend on the permafrost and sea ice to hunt and live are facing increasing challenges. Houses sinking and cliffs sluffing as permafrost melts, whale hunting from ice that breaks off and floats away stranding the hunters are two examples I learned of in this module.
BBC shows Siberian sub-arctic tundra melting.
The whole western Siberian sub-Arctic region has started to thaw
Extend and Explore
It has been such a timely unit of study lately! We have been discovering weather and climate in my science classes the last month or so. I have shown many of the videos and interactive pictures have been great!
To talk about the science behind natural global temperature fluctuations vs mans influence over the last 100 years and then show the Arctic Sea Ice Satellite Observations has really created some good discussions.
Follow that with a videos on melting permafrost and arctic climate perspectives, which puts a face on global warming impacting our Alaskan neighbors, and you have made a cultural connections for 7th graders! Cool!
I filled the cup of ice with water and tried to record the temp. I only had a digital therm. available for fevers...I did not get any readings...lol, out of range I assume cause you'd be dead.
I also think I added to much ice, cause it did over flow a bit....
I will try it again at school with the class.
Classmates:
I liked Konrad's pictures of the receding portage glacier.
I also enjoyed Dan's link to the formation and evolution of earth. I support the theory as the best one yet but, am not sold we have it all correct....maybe in another 100 years... ;-)
I checked in on James and can empathise with how busy he must be. I hope to experience the EAC from Nemo myself someday!
The ability of cyanobacteria to perform oxygenic photosynthesis is thought to have enabled biodiversity and let oxygen dependant organisms thrive. The opening scenes from "Life before Oxygen" from Teachers Domain were just like the poster on the wall of Mr. Pointer and similar to this:
Stromatolites are produced by microbial assemblages, mostly dominated by blue-green algae, but the stromatolite is really a sedimentary deposit. In effect, they are trace fossils produced by the sediment-trapping character of the microbial mat. In my own teaching manuals I list stromatolites under Trace Fossils. If you want to indicate them as the products of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), then list it under Kingdom Monera (for prokaryote microbes). Dr. Tom E. Yancey
In the video "Soil Microbes and Global Warming" I learned the the very area we feel is most susceptible to Global Warming may be itself a leading contributor to Green house gases! Another great example of how all things are connected.
After learning about the creation of all elements withing stars again I gave pause. Super Nova
Starting with hydrogen and helium using fusion to create all elements through Iron, then explode the star to create the rest.... wow!
From the BBC a supernovae in real time
Extend
While a student at Tumwater High I remember listening to Mr. Pointer and his rants on blue-green algae! (Cyanobacteria) "Do you realize you owe your life to bacteria", he would say. His enthusiasm was laughable at the time for young cool teenagers like myself... Not long after doing my student teaching in Tumwater, I thanked him. He didn't pay for a drink all night..... :-) And he swears his next fishing trip is to Juneau!
We are currently studying weather and climate in my class at F.D. The last few modules have been great but, this one seems a little out of the range, for now. The question of how deep to go is a constant struggle. Every video reminds me of a months worth of study in college. What do I share, what do I explore, what do I want them to learn, when do I just let it go and leave it for the next teacher....? My Principal gives me the impression that if it is on the SBA's then teach it, if not, touch on it and move on. (I will refrain from bashing standardized testing)
Is climate changing? Some things I know for sure:
As I have looked out at mendenhall glacier since I move here in 1992, it has retreated.
I took this photo today, that rock face on the left is somewhat new....as is my lovely wife! :-)
Growing up I once drove my motorcycle across Black Lake in the winter to my buddies house, It hasn't frozen like that since I was 16.
My brother built an 8 foot snowman in the road when I was a kid and the police stuck a flare in it and the Daily Olympian took a picture, now Tumwater struggles to get snow that lasts at all.
I sat in the sun in shorts just over 2 months ago. (okay, maybe El nino...)
Watch the video of the Inuit people of Sachs Harbour
Evaluate
This module has so many great resources it is hard to imagine using even half of them. The carbon cycle is not as well known as the water or rock cycle but stay tuned.......
I have tried to secure compute lab time to share some of these but have run into trouble with the district and it's YouTube and internet policies so I just download them and show them from my PC.
The very idea if capturing and storing CO2 is amazing: store it here?
I have learned the Arctic air and mammals are bearing the brunt of the pollution created thousands of miles away by industrialized nations who have lax or no environmental laws to impede the worlds greatest nations from getting things made cheap!
China
This pollution is in turn being passed on to the people who eat the mammals at the top of the food chain. If they were to merely eat the fish or lower animals in the food chain they would be better off, however, that is not their way of life.
Seal fat from Google images, Sila.nu
It is the fat in these arctic mammals that store the toxins that have accumulated where the sun is not available to warm the air and cause the circulation that occurs in the lower latitudes.
In a study from the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. An ice core from Greenland shows a continuous record of the monthly deposition of thallium, cadmium and lead from 1772 forward. All three metal levels soar between 1850 and 1900 only to escalate 10 fold again in the early 20th century until the great depression curbed industry. By the 1970's all three metals were decreasing as clean air laws are adopted in the U.S. and parts of Europe.
From Science Daily
As China, India and the rest of Asia work to control emissions there is some hope these and other pollutants can continue to be eliminated from all of the worlds air and food....
Extend and Evaluate
It is truly ironic that the same harsh, cold weather conditions that keep the arctic isolated from most humans also trap the pollution of the densely populated warm climate areas of the world. The arctic haze...
From NOAA
The images below in Google earth show what looks like a tropical depression or storm building over Puerto Rico. It is hard to tell without wind speeds....I don't know how to view the date of these shots.
As I look at the cool models of the atmosphere and wish I had these at the beginning of this year when I was teaching Atmosphere, I smile and recall my drawings on the white board...lol Using many colors and taking great care to make things clear when I could have just gone to the computer lab...however, taking good notes also helps students so a mix of the two is what I will use in the future.
I think I will go back and revisit some of the topics I have finished using these resources and call it a Mid-Semester review...
I am a little confused at the wind charts with the increase in Latitude. It shows little wind at the equator....The Doldrums as I expected. At 30 degrees though it shows a constant increase in wind speed. My question is what about the horse latitude calm zone from the high pressure in the Hadley and Ferrel cells?
Picture from Wikipedia:
It is so cool to be back in science....I like getting side tracked while talking to students about "things they have heard" or things that don't make sense.... like; if warm air rises, why is it cold on mountains...?? :-)
It is sometimes difficult to secure time in the computer labs as more and more classes utilize this vast resource. The more I learn in classes like this the more I realize I must use the Internet more to give my students the best education I can, especially in science! These videos and pictures from sites like Teachers Domain truly bring to "life" the topics we cover and foster better understanding...
My classmates:
Amy and I both learned about Ben F. mapping out the gulf stream and will use the videos in this section soon.
In Sandi's blog she models the kind of organization I think my blog is lacking. I will try to adopt her layout skills.....
I'm glad Nick dispels the myth of total darkness in Barrow. Nice pic, like most of you I too enjoy taking in "the moment" and appreciating the amazing things around us daily.
Explain
Thermohaline circulation was a great flash from the past. Very cold water that is very salty sinking from the poles and starting the great ocean current conveyor. The cold dense water moves very slow and can take over 1600 years to complete the circulation with only the last tenth being in the warm surface current.
This type of convection cell fuels many systems on our planet, including our weather, fueled by the large amounts of warm moist air rising near the equator and cooler air sinking around 30 degrees north. Until writing this blog I thought warm air had the ability to "hold" more water vapor than cold air, In the search for the truth I found this: Water Vapor Myths and this: Bad Clouds you decide.... I will spend more time on this later.
Expand and Explore
As I explore Ocean temperatures I am amazed at my findings. The surface temperatures below are from today Nov. 9, 2010. My class just studied Hurricanes and Typhoons where surface temp. to build a good storm must exceed 81 degrees F, plenty of opportunity out there.....
The average ocean temp. from "Save the Sea" stated 39 degrees F or 2 degrees C. That didn't make sense to me until I thought about the oceans being so deep (average depth is 12,200 ft.)
The video from TD about Warmer Oceans Affect Food Web attributes the decline in some sea animals to declines in forage fish species such as herring and sand lance. These declines are partially attributed to warming oceans and the effects may be just beginning. According to the Ocean Facts on SavetheSea.org 3.5 billion people depend on the ocean for their primary source of food. And this number is suppose to grow rapidly!
The indigenous people of Alaska have already noticed a huge decline in the availability of food from the sea and waters here in Alaska. As the ocean warms, pollution increases, over harvesting continues and more people become dependant on the Oceans for their food, something has to give.
Unfortunately it will most likely be the people who need the ocean to survive who will be hurt the most. Around the world, impoverished people with little or no political voice and no corporate connections will have to make do with what is left after the major ocean harvesting corporations are done making a profit.
My wife's family lives in the fishing port of Roxas City, Philippines and have felt first hand the effects of declining fish populations that once sustained their entire existence.
Matt does a great job discussing S & P waves! The importance of early warning is critical especially with the threat of Tsunamis!
Like Konrad I enjoyed the google earth section of this module. I wanted to post a cool under water view I found but it kept mixing up my entire blog....?
Nick brings up a huge concern of barrow and many others....the vanishing sea ice!
After viewing the first three videos of the TD Resources section my mind wonders yet again. Desecration's of Holy sites litter our nation. Thank God (the holy power of your choice) the people are finally having a voice that government officials are BEGINNING to listen to. I also enjoyed the story of Maui catching the great fish that turns into the Hawaiian islands.
I took a class this last summer and learned of a sacred place of the Tlingit right here in AukeBay that has been mostly lost. I believe it is Indian Cove that was once a great herring spawning ground and the Indian Point peninsula is a sacred place for the local Tlingit people. Both places show the impact of non-cultural development. The herring beds are gone.
Explain:
The San Andreas fault is a Strike-Slip and in places, Thrust faults. This is the major sources of earthquakes along the left coast of the U.S., however, volcanic activity is not associated with this type of plate boundary. The Subduction zone of the pacific plate along the Aleutian islands is a volcanic nursery and equally responsible for earthquakes in Alaska.
Extend:
Spirit Lake was just another place to go camp... Mt. Saint Helens was just another peak in the cascades until May 18, 1980..........................Watch the eruption
I was at spring football practice going into my sophomore year at Tumwater High School. We saw the cloud of dust rising to the south, the coaches new what had happened and sent us home. We only got a dusting of ash, our friends to the south received from inches to feet depending on location... 57 souls were lost.
The formation of Mt. Saint Helens and the Cascade Range is similar to the Aleutians. A "small" plate called the Juan de Fuca plate is sub-ducting under the North American plate. The result is the same, volcanoes and earthquakes!
I estimate the length from Hawaii to the tip of the Aluetians to be 3,909 miles.
I like the way James W. acknowledges Alaska as a place of “feast or famine” and “remote and raw”. Alaska has had many stories of “boom or bust”, it is the local people who see what the land truly has to offer and harvest those resources to survive.
Sandi P. has a nice way of showing her understanding and continued learning as a result of taking this class…. By throwing and old lesson plan in the trash! Woo hoo!
Like Eric E. is doing now, I also enjoy the learning I have gained by just living here and visting remote places in Alaska. So much is happening here that is not well known by people who haven’t visited, trying to explain it to them just can’t do the people involved justice.
Explain:
In this lesson I have learned to look deeper into the connections of people and the geologic forces that dealt them the landscape they enjoy. I was reminded of the diverse biomes that the people of this planet have made into sustainable communities despite sometimes harsh conditions. I am reminded to stand in awe as I look at landscapes and think of the people who lived there hundreds or thousands of years ago and were able to provide for their children from the land in a way I in some ways envy yet respect in full for its harsh and demanding ways.
Extend and Evaluate
As I contemplate land shaping forces and how that has influenced cultural connections to the places they live many cultures come to mind. The first that came to mind was the Sherpa people of Nepal, high in the Himalayas, such a violent collision of the Indian Plate and Asian Plate, leaving a very unique place to call "home". What lead these people to settle here?That same question has been in the back of my mind in many of my travels around Alaska.
On my first trip with my new friend James to hunt we traveled by skiff for hours through meandering rivers and canals cut by the US Army corp of Engineers. As the raven flies the route may have been only 10-15 miles from the village but, by boat it took most of a day. As I look around the same question went through my mind. Why here? By the end of the trip it made more sense, this land can provide.
by Kevin H.
Parts of Alaska are thought to have formed near the equator based on paleomagnetic signatures, brought here as the North America continental plate and the Pacific Plate push and slide against one another. Alaska has been on the receiving end of these terrains making geologist work hard to understand this complex Alaska geology
Pacific plate bringing terrain to Alaska
Why do people stop and make a place their home? Maybe they can go no further, maybe they just planned to stay until the weather changed, maybe they found the resources they sought or maybe they just looked around and liked what they had around them. When I teach Earth Science again these topics and the idea of connecting with the land will go hand in hand with the theory of how the landscape was formed, be it western sciences version or one I have yet to learn from the people who live there....
I like the way Dave talks about "urban hippies" and getting back to connections with the earth. Dan and I like all the great video's that help explain complex ideas. I did the first comment a few days ago so I will have to go home and look at my notes... :-)
As I read and explore the resources for this class I am excited to be back in Science after a long hiatus! Each module I read and each link I click on brings back a memory from my undergraduate studies of another time.The review of this material reminds me how to recover the information in my brain that has been “out of mind” during my 10+ years of teaching Business, though it is never truly forgotten I have found.
Evaluate and Extend:
While teaching business I was lucky to have a strong science background too.As we discussed the economic resources and their impact on local production, science had to find its way into the lesson.We would discuss the 4 p’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion and the local resources always led the way to an areas prosperity. Where would you place an orange juice production plant?Of course near the oranges! Why is a brewery one of the most successful product exports from Juneau?It’s near some of the best water in the world and the other ingredients are light and easily shipped. And so on.
My travels also enlightened me to economic development around the world.While visiting Cairo, Egypt I witnessed a phenomenon in production I was not at all familiar with at the time.Outside the window where I was living they were building a school.It had been going on for two years and was not even a tenth of the way done.It was a Saturday when I arrived and I could see 50 pieces of heavy equipment near the site.When Monday came around I heard some soft construction noises, but nothing like I expected.It was a couple men throwing bricks to the second floor after they carried them by wheelbarrow to that spot.WHY?They had a variety of equipment going unused and so much manual labor carrying bricks, mixing mortar and building this school one brick at a time.The short answer is the goal of the local community and government was not to build the school, it was to keep men working.
Just as the land has shaped the economy and life of the people of Alaska.The harsh landscape from plate tectonics in this area limited travel by land so the water just worked better.The sea has many resources readily available to the people here (South East, AK) while the land and climate are not so good for farming. This has led to a "sea based" subsistence, though some hunting and gathering on land helped sustain the people here.
No matter your heritage, your ancestors lived off the land and resources of their local environment and those turned into trade which led to economic diversity in most places. Some more than others…. depending on the lands mineral deposits, oil deposits, geographic location and political connections; some places manage to hold on to more of the traditional ways and some loose them entirely...
I will attempt to "link" to my 3 colleagues I commented on. First is James White a former student athlete of mine here in Juneau, welcome back James! The next is Ernestine Hayes whom I just picked because I liked her blog. And last but not least was Eric Ellefson, I think I will enjoy reading the blogs of a "new young teaching white guy from the lower-48" in a native village...lol, as I have been one.
First I will remind everyone to save, save, save their work before they are done so if something goes wrong you don't have to start over....
As I read this material and watched the video on Chevak and others my mind raced. I have long been interested in how things where done in the past and have respected those who survived this and other harsh climates.
I remember one of many white-outs while I lived and worked in Chevak, I got word that the girls basketball team was over due from Hooper bay. People gathered at the school as the VHS got the word out. People brought their snow machines, extra fuel cans, food, blankets and modern gizmo's like my GPS. Suffice it to say the first mission was unsuccessful and we almost lost a couple other people. The next morning a local man with much experience found the team and got them home safe just using the blueprint of the land in his head! The team and Coach did what they needed to to survive until help arrived as they had been taught. I looked at my GPS and laughed to myself.
I also got to spend time with my students and Native Alaskan colleagues in a true "sea week" 5 days out in the tundra, making camps, winding around rivers by boat, hunting seal, visiting old village sites, listening to stories of a way of life not so long ago, yet so different. I was like a sponge, soaking up all I could and wishing I had a notebook, then realizing one is not needed if you listen. I wanted to share everything I learned but, had no audience as my students where their with me and had heard the stories each year I was told. I went back the next year too and enjoyed it even more, listening and learning things I was not sure when I would use but enjoying my opportunity.
I now have the chance to share some of the knowledge I learned! After Chevak I taught only Business and Finance, now I am finally teaching science and can't wait to share some of the stories I was told as the topics arise. I was worried I could not remember enough to speak to them, however, the resources I have already found in Teacher's Domain have given me the confidence and information to bring them forward.
This is the current site of Chevak (with my old buddy Gin, the dog)
This is the old site of the village, it was getting to small and the water level was making it unsafe. There are many remnants of the sod huts and old tools used there. I'm sorry to not remember the spelling of this grand place...
I have many places I love to be, all of which are better with family and friends. This one is from Coglan Island picnicing with the kids after catching a few fish earlier in the day.
Special assignment:
This is a picture of the area I was born.It has experienced heavy erosion over the past 12,000 years of the Holocene, like all places on this “Google Earth”.The dominant formations near my birth place are alluvial fans and fan deltas, these have left a common landscape now scared by drainage patterns and covered in hearty foliage.
Carbon cycle
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