Module VII

Essential Question: How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological and cultural systems?

1.  Explain:  What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?

I did not know Parrot fish create much of the sand at the bottom of coral reefs from feeding on coral polyps—wow!  I also didn’t know sea cucumbers get algae and organic matter by eating the sand.  Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem video provided a lot of vivid sea life images—particularly the chloroplasts close-up on the ruffled sea slug.  What an amazing ecosystem a coral reef is.

I was a little perplexed by the second sentence in this paragraph:

Coal Carbon Cache
Plants take up carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and store it in their tissues. When plants are eaten or die and decay, the solid carbon stored in them is returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

How does the solid carbon return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide?  Is it off-gassing in swamps?  Or when bodies decay, they produce gases—is that an example of carbon dioxide being produced?

The Nova/Frontline video clip from TD, Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect really made an impact with me.  A gallon of gasoline that I burn will spread throughout the entire atmosphere and show up all the way in Antarctica by next year.  What a staggering statement!  And it sticks around in the atmosphere for about a hundred years—I did not know this.  Then it gets absorbed into the ocean—and I just learned what carbon dioxide is doing there: ocean acidification.  This is all quite depressing.  The infrared image of CO2 causing the scientist’s face to disappear is a great visual.

I had to chuckle at the question “Why so many engineers?” in the category of US climate skeptical scientists by field—my husband is a civil engineer.  Hello!  Engineers build, construct, and develop land into buildings and roads and cities.  I was not shocked in the least! 

I love that Capturing Carbon from the atmosphere stemmed from Lackner’s daughter’s science experiment—how cool is that?!  She must be one smart cookie.

2.  Extend:  How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?  What other resources can you share?

The Elements: Forged in Stars TD video provided the best explanation I’ve ever seen of the formation of new elements.  It made the periodic table a lot less daunting.  I think this video would definitely be useful if I ever teach the subject of chemistry or Earth science, especially coupled with The Origin of the Elements. 

The TD video, Global Warming, The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect starts with a question that permeates on the Kenai Peninsula: “Why should adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere be cause for alarm?”  I struggle as a teacher to educate this population on “green” subjects, because they balk at such topics.  “Blasphemy!” they cry.  When a significant percentage of the local people work in the oil industry, their children have been raised to ignore the negative consequences of consuming oil, and even disagree with the physical impacts, as though they aren’t even occurring.  Talk about looking at life through rose-colored lenses!  This video may help me in tackling environmental subjects, as it might get my students to listen.  Maybe.

The car analogy for greenhouse gases in the TD video Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect is a great demonstration—I think it would be a helpful example for students to better understand how greenhouse gases really do have an effect.  We all hate being in an unconditioned car on a hot sunny day with the windows rolled up!  I expect I would use this analogy either in discussion or show the video in an environmental class. 

The video also mentions sources of methane—even rice paddies?  I now am going to feel guilty when eating beef and rice?  OMGoodness.

3. Evaluate: How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?

As in past modules, much of this information was not directly useful for the classes I currently teach.  However, that by no means suggests this wealth of knowledge wasn’t valuable to me as a life-long learner and responsible citizen of Earth.  I am definitely reflecting a lot on the Carbon Connections section especially, as it more directly hits a nerve.  Overall this week’s module was the most depressing so far—I’m left with a strong sense of no way out.  It’s frustrating to hold the knowledge but lack the power to make positive impactive changes.  And in some regard, do I want to change my behavior?  I LOVE to snowmachine!  The government has taken steps to reduce emissions, but gas is still being used.  Period.  Can I give up my passions?  Can society give up so much of what (media) it has determined necessary?  I'm not sure.  I'll just toss and turn over this tonight & not get restful sleep, feeling guilty. . . 

But I did enjoy riding Saturday in the Caribou Hills--the snow was superb!

3 Colleagues

I visited Dave Sather’s blog again this week & found his Carl Sagan’s Cosmos video to be a great summary of life’s history on Earth.  It’s fun to ponder what it would be like on our planet if evolution had taken a different path!

Thanks for the recommended read, Konrad Mittelstadt.  “The Firecracker Boys” sounds interesting (and scary!).

Kathy East had some great pictures—the one of the “lobster” got a real chuckle out of me!  I love to dress my dogs up each Halloween, too.

Module VI

Essential Question:
How are the Earth, atmosphere and cultures all connected?

1.  Explain:  What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?

I did not know industrial pollutants bio-accumulate in the fat of arctic animals.  But then, am I surprised?  No.  It’s depressing.  I just recently went all-organic with my body products: shampoo, soap, moisturizer, deodorant, etc.—what a learning curve for me!  I’m finding out a lot about what those chemicals are that we can’t even pronounce on the ingredients list of so many body products.  It’s appalling.  Some of the ingredients are manufactured outside the U.S. because the chemicals used to make them aren’t even allowed in our country.  Yet they’re allowed on our skin and in our mouths.  Would you believe one of them is a common ingredient in most deodorants (even the ones who claim aluminum free)? 

But will we ever really get away from industry & pollution?  I really wonder. . . I know what I love to do for fun, and it requires fuel & lots of plastic!  I know how I get to and from work everyday: drive!  I know production and materialism is paramount in our (western) culture—can we really overcome it?  I’m not so sure.  I just have so much inner conflict about what we should be doing vs. what we are doing everyday.  Should I recycle?  Yes, but then again, I’ve been to a Nascar race and I’ve seen how much garbage accumulates from one event gathering 70,000 people together. And the sheer quantity of tires—hundreds of tires are used & replaced in just a couple of hours.  It’s overwhelming & I feel so bad about it.

I’m a bit concerned about this statement: “It is doubly ironic that those who are the least culpable for creating pollution and who live closest to the land and subsist most directly from their immediate environment, are most at risk for suffering the effects of industrial pollution.”  I don’t know of an Alaska Native village that exists & subsists without creating or contributing to the pollution: aluminum boats with outboard motors, snowmachines, atv’s, etc. are a common sight in any village I’ve visited. Granted, I recognize the point here, but I don’t agree with the portrayal of Alaska Natives (or Arctic natives) as completely out of the contribution, too.  Just because the industrial plants are located further south, Alaskans are huge consumers of the materials coming from them. Whether it’s the thermal, moisture-wicking polyester material of our REI gear, the water-proofing layer placed on our outerwear by Dupont so we can hike the pristine wilderness, or the aluminum for our boats to access remote places on the water—we love this stuff, but it is bad news for the environment.  We are the consumers demanding the products producing the pollution.

The Youtube NASA ARCTAS Mission video was quite striking—I replayed the image for myself twice and for my husband a third time just because watching the Arctic ice shrink so drastically over the last few years is unnerving and impressive.  The time lapse video really demonstrates drastic change over a very short period, and in science this is rather unusual. 

The “Gloves” on both sides of the sun, or rainbow effect, is just ice crystals way high up in the ionosphere—what does that mean for weather to come?  I was very intrigued by this “sign maker” from nature according to Oscar Kawagley, an educator from UAF in the Alaska Native Pilots video from TD, but am left wondering what that offers for forecasting the weather.

I visited NASA National Space Science Data Center Image Resources and found myself out of touch with much of what was linked to here.  My strength in science is definitely not space!  But I decided to choose something that struck me as interesting when I started viewing all these images (with Greek names!).  I’ll be honest, I felt like a man viewing a woman’s ultrasound baby picture!  I saw a lot of blobs. . . Anyway, I decided to explore Saturn in depth a bit more on my own while examining the pictures more closely—the photos are really quite breathtaking. 

I am left wondering how on Earth, no, wait—how in the Solar System—did someone figure all this out?!  It’s so amazing to me that there is the wealth of known information out there about Saturn when it can’t even be visited. It’s such an extreme environment: wind speeds of 1800 km/hr, interior pressures and temperatures are beyond what can be reproduced experimentally on Earth (Wikipedia), for example.  Really fascinating.

The Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere is an excellent visual.  It’s an easy-to-interpret representation of multiple aspects of the atmosphere all on one image, which makes it very user-friendly.    

The YouTube video “Reveal Earth’s Atmosphere” provided great video footage; the narration is rather comical, however! I think my students would find it a relevant video, especially with the air surfing.

Another YouTube video that really got me thinking was Making Ice by Boiling Water.  I’m curious what the cost difference would be to use pressure change to freeze our food instead of electricity (or gas, as some people use propane) to drop the temperature of a refrigerator/freezer?  I’m guessing pressure change is the flash-freeze method for seafood? 

2.  Extend:  How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?

I don’t envision using this week’s information and resources in my subjects of math and life sciences, other than in casual conversation or the random questions that sometimes arise from students.  I see this being more applicable is general discussion opportunities & adding to my knowledge base.

3.  Evaluate:  How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?

Overall, I found this week’s module very informative, more from a general learner’s perspective.  I have never been a natural learner when it comes to the physical world of science around us, while my husband is (he just gets barometric pressure, weather change, high and low pressure systems and their effects).  I appreciate this opportunity to improve my understanding of the world around me that I’ve long chosen to ignore. 

As far as the cultural connection, I feel there’s a gap between the native knowledge of the weather & western science’s understanding and predictions:  at least I’m left thinking so—perhaps there really is a strong understanding of the weather and the ability to forecast it in the native cultures of Alaska & the Arctic, but it wasn’t clearly communicated in the video links this week.  Certainly cultures who have survived the most extreme weather on Earth for many generations have weather forecasting skills?  But, maybe this knowledge has been lost like much of the stories with the ancestors who died from viral infections of the early 1900’s.

3 Colleagues

I visited Eric Ellefson’s blog and he found a Stats link which graphs visitors to his blog—it shows an increase of visits on Sundays.  Interesting!

Dave Sather explains a possible theory for the vivid orange background of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch which relates to the atmosphere—I had never heard this before and appreciate the info.

I actually found the ALISON link from Dan Adair’s blog, but it originated from Cheryl’s site.  How cool—an acronym spelled the same as my name!  It seems like a great way to get kids involved in “real science” and teachers, too.

Module V

How are climate, cultures and oceans all connected?

I like this image of global surface ocean currents because of the connected, ribon-like visual aid.
from: spacestation-shuttle.blogspot.com

1. Explain: What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module? 

I was intrigued by the animated image showing Alaska in the Global View of the Seasons and was left wondering why part of Alaska has white representing less vegetation in the area around Cordova/Yakutat area during the summer season?  That seems a bit strange. 

Overall, it's quite striking how much the Northern Hemisphere experiences seasonal changes when compared to the Southern Hemisphere. 

Also, I had heard of the toilet example and was shocked to learn it is not true!  Bummer—it seemed like such a great working example of the Coriolis effect!  Oh well.

2. Extend: How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons? 

I like the Interesting Ocean Facts list—I printed it out and hung it up in my classroom today, as it gets everyone thinking . . . especially about the math involved to calculate some of these statistics.

The Oceans of Climate Change video was a great example of a classroom demo that would be easy to emulate—not much in the way of materials (costs) and yet provides a very clear explanation & visualization of the difference in heat capacity between water and air.  Or, I could simply play the TD video for the class, too!  Awesome example!  

I will definitely perform the Destiny of Density Differences Lab (man, I can't even type that without typos!  Saying it is even worse!) with the blue and red food coloring—what an easy and affordable demonstration with a lot learning and discussion potential!  Cool. 

"What Causes Earth's Seasons" You Tube video link provided good visuals of Earth's tilt that I envision using in my classroom.  I just got a SmartBoard hooked up in my room this week, so I'm thrilled to show Google Earth on my widescreen Smartboard to the kids and have them "travel around" the world. 

3. Evaluate: How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?

I really enjoyed the review of science concepts overall, but much of it is beyond where my students are at educationally so I’m still waiting for more appropriate material that I can use . . . Not that this wasn’t good stuff, and a few things are appropriate for my classroom.  But overall this module doesn’t meet my students’ needs very well (think LOW, very low—more elementary and middle school for 17 & 18 year olds).

3 Colleagues
I enjoyed Ernestine Hayes' blog post from last week (Module IV), particularly her point about artificial light.  It's quite a pondering experience to imagine what our lives might be like without artificial light. 

Again, Matt Hunter provides a wealth of science review & trivia for us on his blog that's very educational.  I enjoy reading his blog each week after I complete the Module assignments for all the information he shares. 

Tracy Pulido had me chuckling over her comment about what being a science teacher in "conservative North Pole" might be like--I live in "conservative Kenai" and am a science teacher, to boot. While I haven't found a lot of Palin supporters in my classroom lately, I do find my students are truly uninterested in environmental topics.  Period.  It's as though when this topic is raised they blow it off like I'm speaking heresy.  Quite different from my high school (Juneau) & college (Fairbanks) experience, for sure. Thanks for bringing me a smile!