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.