tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73112560386819409682024-02-18T18:05:18.063-08:00Explore Alaska with AlisonalisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-91887888212665330022010-12-27T23:16:00.000-08:002010-12-27T23:17:59.925-08:00Final Project<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I will be teaching a 7 week long course titled “Environmental Science” this spring (Feb-April), and intend to incorporate the digital resources listed below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I provide some explanation (rational) for using them, along with the connection to my students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My goal is to make the class as relevant and meaningful to them as I can, while perhaps opening their eyes (somewhat, at least) to the impact(s) <u>we</u> are having on the world around us, much like what this course taught me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t go into great lesson plan detail, but rather provide a summary of each of the digital resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My intention for integrating Alaska Native ways of knowing is to make the class materials/resources as real for my students as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I will begin the unit with this essential question: “<a href="http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/debate-2-0-what-will-it-take-to-make-you-change/">What Will It Take To Make You Change?</a>” which originates from the linked website where the same question was asked of the public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to start my unit with this open-ended question & have my students ponder it for the next 7 weeks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">First we will view “</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.hologlobe/"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Earth as a System</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">” TD video, which will introduce my students to Earth’s integrated system of components and processes, setting the framework for what is to come. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Next, I hope to inspire my students with the YouTube Symphony of Science “</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">We Are All Connected</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">” video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am so visual and this just had my brain firing at all synapses, so I am hopeful it will have a similar impact on my kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some things just hit a nerve and this is one; I really look forward to using it in my classroom.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">In going more in-depth, we’ll delve first into the subject of greenhouse gases:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The TD video, <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.greenhouse2/">Global Warming, The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect</a> starts with a question that permeates on the Kenai Peninsula: “Why should adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere be cause for alarm?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the kind of question many of my students ask when the subject of global warming comes up, so I think it’s a good beginning for the unit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The car analogy for greenhouse gases in the TD video <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/tdc02_vid_greenhouse/"><span style="color: blue;">Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect</span></a> 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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all hate being in an unconditioned car on a hot sunny day with the windows rolled up!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The Nova/Frontline video clip from TD, <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.ess.watcyc.co2/">Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect</a> really made an impact with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A gallon of gasoline that I burn will spread throughout the entire atmosphere and show up all the way in Antarctica by next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a staggering statement!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it sticks around in the atmosphere for about a hundred years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it gets absorbed into the ocean—and we know what carbon dioxide is doing there: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification"><span style="color: blue;">ocean acidification</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will offer time for discussion following this clip, so students can really process their impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll ponder what emissions we contributed just in the last few hours:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>driving or busing to school, etc., as well as days: snowmachining, flying, burning wood, etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyPLusD-tyM&feature=player_embedded&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1"><span style="color: windowtext;">Oceans of Climate Change</span></a> balloon popping video offers 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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll probably show the YouTube video first, then follow it up with an actual class demonstration (because it’s only a little messy & will leave a lasting impression!). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will provide a nice segue into our next study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Next we’ll explore Water (both liquid & frozen), beginning with utilizing the <a href="http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/glaciers/glaciers_sea_level.asp">USGS</a> fill-in-the-blank questions “A drop in the bucket” and “1000 snow flakes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These would each make for good introductions to the lesson (“anticipatory sets”):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">How much of Earth's water is in the ocean? How much is fresh? How much is in the atmosphere? How much is in lakes, rivers, or underground? How much of Earth's fresh water is stored frozen as permafrost and glaciers? <b><br />
</b><br />
<b><br />
A Drop in the Bucket</b> <br />
How would you estimate the planet's supply of water is distributed if it were reduced to 1000 drops. Give a try before you peek! </span></div><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in the oceans and inland seas </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in glaciers </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in ground water and soil moisture </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in the atmosphere </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in lakes and rivers </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____ drops are in all living plants and animals </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">1000 drops total.</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">(Find answers at <a href="http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/glaciers/water_on_earth.asp" target="blank" title="Water on Earth">USGS,Water on Earth</a>) <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">1000 Snow Flakes</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> <br />
More than 2/3 of all fresh water on Earth is stored in glaciers. If all present glaciers were represented by 1000 ice snow flakes, how would you estimate the distribution of glaciers on Earth? Give a try before you peek! </span></div><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes in Antarctica </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes in Greenland </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes in N. America</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes in Alaska </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes are in Asia </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">_____snow flakes in S. America, Europe, Africa, New Zealand, etc., etc.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; color: #333333; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">1000 snow flakes total</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">(Find answers at <a href="http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/glaciers/intro_glaciers.asp" target="blank" title="USGS Introduction to Glaciers">USGS, Introduction to Glaciers</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I like the “<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ipy07_int_glacierphoto/">Documenting Glacial Change</a>” screen of actual pictures to compare glaciers now and then—WOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s remarkable how different and even absent some glaciers are in a relatively short period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I will then incorporate the “<a href="http://alaskaculturesgeosciences.blogspot.com/2010/03/module-viii-part-iii-phun-physics-of.html"><span style="color: blue;">Phun Physics of Phase Change Lab</span></a>” as it demonstrates all too well what will happen if we lose our Arctic ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also want to use Clay’s analogy from Module VIII:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Our planet uses many of the same tricks that over-heated humans use to cool off. Our circulatory system is like the great ocean currents moving our excess heat to cooler places. We mist and fan ourselves, put on a white shirt and white broad-brimmed hat, or we head for the shade.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.earthsys.climatesys/"><span style="color: blue;">Arctic Climate Systems</span></a> video elaborates quite a bit on the possible outcomes of global climate change into the future, providing some interesting scenarios: significant melting of permafrost causing a “burp” of greenhouse gases, permanent alteration to or even halting the ocean’s currents,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of the TD videos thus far has mentioned the impact to animals (i.e. polar bears need the sea ice to hunt for food) over and over again, but this video actually went into depth about the possible (catastrophic) effects to Earth’s systems in far more detail, which I appreciate, and I think my students will, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to end this topic with a table discussion where paper strips are randomly drawn with each of the above mentioned global climate change outcomes for students to then debate/discuss/consider with one another through dialog.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">TD video “<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.life.eco.arctichange/"><span style="color: blue;">How the Arctic Ecosystem Might Change</span></a>” helped me realize how a system with low biodiversity such as the Arctic really cannot bounce back from change the way a biodiverse system can—that it’s fragile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t really considered the Arctic food chain before, but now in considering it for the first time I can see just how few species do rely on each other for food, so with even a slight change, it can be catastrophic to the ecosystem, and I want to share this perspective with my students. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By now everyone is aware of polar bears losing their habitat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the ramifications to this ecosystem can be catastrophic, and I want to be sure they are made aware of this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">And, I have to finish with viewing: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSLHvZnbYwc">The methane lighting on lakes</a>, because what kid wouldn’t pay attention to this?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m curious to learn if any of my students have ever had such an opportunity to experience methane lighting on a lake in Northern Alaska. . . </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">In wrapping up the unit we will revisit our essential question “<a href="http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/debate-2-0-what-will-it-take-to-make-you-change/">What Will It Take To Make You Change?</a>” and I look forward to hearing some articulate answers (regardless of the change or not).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am undecided what method I will have my students use to respond to the essential question—written, verbal, I’m not sure; perhaps an individual speech (no pressure there! Ha!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I have time still to decide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will also replay the YouTube Symphony of Science “</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">We Are All Connected</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">” video, because in watching it again myself, I find it has a nice concluding message to leave everyone with. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-87151375851764065372010-12-12T15:04:00.000-08:002010-12-12T15:04:06.843-08:00Module IX<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Essential Question:<br />
<br />
How are climate, terrestrial ice and Alaskan indigenous cultures all connected?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Explain:</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I am very impressed by <a href="http://www.alaskool.org/default.htm">Alaskool.org</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a wealth of information!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got caught up reading the “<a href="http://www.alaskool.org/projects/reindeer/history/seveck/Longest_herder.html">Longest Reindeer Herder</a>,” fascinated by the experiences of the last century in Northern Alaska.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned that eating cold food during a particularly cold period can help the body stay warmer than eating warm food—very interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m looking forward to trying it out sometime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though I can’t imagine it’s easy eating really cold or frozen food when my body is already feeling cold from frigid temperatures. . . we’ll see if I can muster the courage to try my experiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I forwarded this link to my dad, as he loves learning about Alaska Natives and especially their historical perspectives, so I think he’ll really get a kick out of this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I really enjoyed reading the <a href="http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/newui/blog/viewpostlist.jsp?blogname=icebridge">NASA Antarctic Ice Bridge Blog</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provided a lot of different images, including flight sights as they flew around Antarctica & experiences images, which I always appreciate in order to get a better understanding of their perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds like they had a rough go of their mission this year, with a lot of typical frustrations happening all at the same time (illness, car accidents, weather delays, plane part delays).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.climatechange/">Climate Change</a> TD video really shocked me—I did not know that the last warming period was really quite dramatic and short.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had assumed (or maybe learned in a classroom years ago?) that it had occurred over a long period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe only 20 years?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s REALLY fast!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">In this video, the scientist Kendrick Taylor talked about how some “trigger” can be tripped to cause quite a change in climate—it made me think of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624">The Tipping Point</a>, by Malcolm Gladwell, which is an excellent read in my opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It covers a variety of topics all relating to the same idea: there’s a magic number for things to drastically change or “tip.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I like the “<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ipy07_int_glacierphoto/">Documenting Glacial Change</a>” screen of actual pictures to compare glaciers now and then—WOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s remarkable how different and even absent some glaciers are in a relatively short period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know growing up with the Mendenhall glacier out our window receding each year has been noticeable, but some of these like Muir, for example, are virtually gone now and that’s just been in 70 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is definitely an example of a ‘picture tells a thousand words.’</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ipy07.sci.ess.watcyc.fastglacier/">Fastest Glacier</a> TD video is quite amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t hardly believe the Jakobshavn Glacier is traveling 113 feet per day—that’s just crazy fast!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This video mentions global warming as the likely culprit for the increase in movement over the last several years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A comment made at the end of the video states “what scientists do know is that changes that once occurred over hundreds or thousands of years are today taking place right in front of their eyes” and it got me pondering the idea of climate vs. weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have understood the two to be dependent on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">time</i> differentiating them from one another—but perhaps these two are melding or overlapping as climate changes are occurring much more rapidly than in the recent past?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Thanks so much for the <a href="http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/index.php/see_our_cameras/mendenhall_glacier__alaska/">Extreme Ice Survey</a>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I LOVE the time-lapse photography of the Mendenhall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s just in a year and a half—amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder just where the camera was placed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent a lot of time out there as a kid, so it’s kinda cool to think of these guys out there studying “my backyard” so to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ha!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSLHvZnbYwc">The methane lighting on lakes</a> is pretty cool!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if that’s possible on the lake near my parents’ cabin outside of Minto (northwest of Fairbanks). . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll have to ask my dad to try it when he goes there in February.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extend:</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What other resources can you share?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I can see myself using the <a href="http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/glaciers/glaciers_sea_level.asp">USGS</a> fill-in-the-blank questions about sea levels rising due to glaciers melting along with “A drop in the bucket” and “1000 snow flakes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These would each make for good introductions to the lessons (“anticipatory sets”).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Evaluate:</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I liked this module a lot—several of the resources struck a personal connection for me, which is in part the point of this class (to make cultural/personal connections for Alaskans).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am hopeful to do the same when developing my final project for my students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head, so I need to pin down just exactly what it is I’m going to do and what resources I am actually going to use. . . in the next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is so much to choose from with the 9 modules! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yikes!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I also love that you shared a personal picture, Clay!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t seen you in 15 years or so; it was great to see how youthful and fun you still are—are you standing on an iceberg yourself???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">It’s hard to believe this is the beach in Prince William Sound in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">June: that's a lot of snow!</i> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TMRn0A22C9f7tdrdh0L3rEynzsyifeWb2eB_mGUIgOKCEFD_FiJWoy5l1zXv94AiF2DrEUuf8MqQXK-SeuecnOXXbtAOOMBNZgKmcMzq5MmU6zle6w_efcuqhrpVHWELQEkEbxP8Nds/s1600/IMG_1783.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TMRn0A22C9f7tdrdh0L3rEynzsyifeWb2eB_mGUIgOKCEFD_FiJWoy5l1zXv94AiF2DrEUuf8MqQXK-SeuecnOXXbtAOOMBNZgKmcMzq5MmU6zle6w_efcuqhrpVHWELQEkEbxP8Nds/s320/IMG_1783.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">3 Colleagues</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Lila Lee Little’s blog provided a picture of her baby, <a href="http://lila-on-integrating-ways-of-knowing.blogspot.com/2010/12/sawyer-david-little.html">Sawyer David Little</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a doll!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks so much for sharing a picture with us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.alaskanwisdom.blogspot.com/">Tyler Orbison</a> shared some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cool</i> pictures of him on the Mendenhall and aerials in his blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That must have been a fun experience!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are just about directly over my parents’ house where I grew up in the picture taken from the Temsco helicopter. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://exploringalaskaclass.blogspot.com/2010/12/climate-ice-terrestrial-ice-and-alaskan.html#comment-form"><span style="color: blue;">Kathy East</span></a> referenced an example of evidence for rapid climate change occurring in the past with mastodon and mammoth remains being found together in Colorado, which is interesting.</span></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-9122611521756991832010-12-05T17:23:00.000-08:002010-12-05T17:26:45.065-08:00Module VIII<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">How are Arctic sea-ice, climate and culture all connected?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Explain</i>: What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">From <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2010/10-89AR.html">NASA’s 2009 polar crash test</a>, I was surprised to learn water was found on the moon—surprised it hadn’t been found earlier, but also surprised that it’s there in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now my curiosity is peaked with the scientists’ theories as to just how it got there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I read “The Climate Fix” book summary by Brendan Barrett, “<a href="http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/what-kind-of-climate-fix-would-you-prefer/">What kind of climate fix would you prefer?</a>” in a link from <a href="http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/">Our World 2.0</a> and am inspired to read it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found this Explore Alaska course to be mighty depressing in its focus on global warming & climate change, and am hopeful that maybe there is some solution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am looking forward to some free time in the future (When will that be, you ask?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>June, perhaps?!), and will keep my eyes out for this book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has anyone else read it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">As far as the website, it looks very inspiring for a class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am considering this as a guide for developing a 7 week unit “Environmental Science” and choosing several of the article links to use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will implement this in the final project, I think.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The TD video “<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.earthsys.hunting/">Hunters Navigate Warming Arctic</a>” displayed Jamese Mike’s notes written in what I presume to be Inuit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t realize there was a written Inuit language—I thought it was strictly an oral or spoken language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looked to be very image or picture-like, reminding me of Egyptian hieroglyphics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very interesting!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.earthsys.climatesys/">Arctic Climate Systems</a> video elaborates quite a bit on the possible outcomes of global climate change into the future, providing some interesting scenarios: significant melting of permafrost causing a “burp” of greenhouse gases, permanent alteration to or even halting the ocean’s currents,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of the TD videos thus far has mentioned the impact to animals (i.e. polar bears need the sea ice to hunt for food) over and over again, but this video actually went into depth about the possible (catastrophic) effects to Earth’s systems in far more detail, which I appreciate. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">TD video “<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.life.eco.arctichange/">How the Arctic Ecosystem Might Change</a>” helped me realize how a system with low biodiversity such as the Arctic really cannot bounce back from change the way a biodiverse system can—that it’s fragile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t really considered the Arctic food chain before, but now in considering it for the first time I can see just how few species do rely on each other for food, so with even a slight change, it can be catastrophic to the ecosystem.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extend</i>: How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What other resources can you share?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I will definitely use the “<a href="http://alaskaculturesgeosciences.blogspot.com/2010/03/module-viii-part-iii-phun-physics-of.html">Phun Physics of Phase Change Lab</a>” in my classroom, as it demonstrates all too well what will happen if we lose our Arctic ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yikes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too scary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evaluate</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Like past modules, the information overall was very valuable for my knowledge & learning but specific to what I teach, it is less appropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find myself applying this course to my daily thoughts a lot when it comes to human impact—I am constantly mentally processing this!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s overwhelming, but important awareness on my part, nonetheless. I keep thinking about our responsibility in all of this & how we aren’t really changing or improving our behaviors: great—companies make us feel better about buying their “green” products, but really all we are doing is kidding ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s another plastic bottle; there’s another car produced (though it may be more fuel efficient, there are still all the parts produced in order to manufacture it). Ugh!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">And spending last week in Hawaii (we flew to Honolulu & spent 9 days in Ko Olina, about 30 minutes outside the city) really got me thinking about this disconnect people living in warmer climates around the globe have with the effects of global warming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘So some polar bears and seals might die, so what?’ they might think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But once people learn the catastrophic effects losing the Arctic’s ice will have on Earth’s ability to thermo-regulate—wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a sharp wake-up-call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I was surprised how <u>everyone</u> drives on Oahu—with the warm temperatures year-round I would expect to see more people walking and biking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honestly, I think I saw more people ride bikes in Fairbanks in the winter when I lived there than I saw on Oahu last week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s sad, really.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">We preferred to go strollin’, swimmin’, and snorklin’ while we were there!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6Oej_okQKFPpzHMbh1OUL_7K265DAYinVd09rOx3wr3n_-HmBvKTxTdWTrxZlhF-XIGIaiMg5z6XWR8A9xs8fyVCQIZM0FjqtBpc7BwM7yezmbMmA1pEGJ9oh9-797vj1P2-kHMB1T8/s1600/Black+Pearl.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6Oej_okQKFPpzHMbh1OUL_7K265DAYinVd09rOx3wr3n_-HmBvKTxTdWTrxZlhF-XIGIaiMg5z6XWR8A9xs8fyVCQIZM0FjqtBpc7BwM7yezmbMmA1pEGJ9oh9-797vj1P2-kHMB1T8/s320/Black+Pearl.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">By the way, that’s the ‘Black Pearl’ pirate ship from “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies in the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was harbored in the Ko Olina boat harbor while we there for filming that had been done recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kinda cool!</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Here is a beautiful Hawaiian sunset. . . ah, the warm breeze of 85 degrees in November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a great reprieve from the mundane of home!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgou0sEq0RIdmEKaB5I2nKa02yY5WEcf8NgExjqsk6BqUY3rekwUIHwX7rJpsutQWZ2ZjDfqEnN0J6nZW4vCvh8PCI7ftrvu5h73A_oYgwt3Mdk8dg6ja-X9ijM_0EhB73Ag5I-dAbyk30/s1600/Hwaiian+sunset.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgou0sEq0RIdmEKaB5I2nKa02yY5WEcf8NgExjqsk6BqUY3rekwUIHwX7rJpsutQWZ2ZjDfqEnN0J6nZW4vCvh8PCI7ftrvu5h73A_oYgwt3Mdk8dg6ja-X9ijM_0EhB73Ag5I-dAbyk30/s320/Hwaiian+sunset.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">3 Colleagues</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I visited <a href="http://indiancrkghetto.blogspot.com/">Konrad Mittelstadt’s blog</a> & was surprised to learn about a <a href="http://permafrosttunnel.crrel.usace.army.mil/">permafrost tunnel</a> in Fairbanks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lived in Fairbanks for five years while going to college & never knew about this tunnel!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How cool to have toured it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m jealous of you, Konrad! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Alicia Weaver was creative with her name of Module VIII:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<a href="http://www.scienceinalaska.blogspot.com/">Ice Ice Baby</a>” with a great picture of a helicopter flying by ice in Alaska—TONS of ice, I might add!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">I was just as shocked by “<a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/x46r1574446983vj/">High Levels of PCBs in Breast Milk of Inuit Women in Arctic Quebec</a>” as <a href="http://lila-on-integrating-ways-of-knowing.blogspot.com/">Lila Lee</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s crazy how much higher!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How disappointing that doing what is supposed to be best for a baby (“Breast is Best!”) is really not for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article was published in 1989, so I’m curious how things have changed (perhaps worse, now?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gets me wondering about my diet of subsistence, as we eat a lot of Kenai River salmon throughout the year—I’d sure like to know what my blood levels of toxic compounds are (or maybe I don’t. . . ).</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-81078680495011679372010-11-16T22:18:00.000-08:002010-11-18T18:33:16.208-08:00Module VII<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">Essential Question: How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological and cultural systems?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Explain</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">I did not know Parrot fish create much of the sand at the bottom of coral reefs from feeding on coral polyps—wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also didn’t know sea cucumbers get algae and organic matter by eating the sand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/hew06.sci.life.reg.foodweb/">Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem</a> video provided a lot of vivid sea life images—particularly the chloroplasts close-up on the ruffled sea slug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What an amazing ecosystem a coral reef is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">I was a little perplexed by the second sentence in this paragraph:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">Coal Carbon Cache</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
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.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">How does the solid carbon return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it off-gassing in swamps?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or when bodies decay, they produce gases—is that an example of carbon dioxide being produced?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Nova/Frontline video clip from TD, <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.ess.watcyc.co2/">Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect</a> really made an impact with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A gallon of gasoline that I burn will spread throughout the entire atmosphere and show up all the way in Antarctica by next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a staggering statement!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it sticks around in the atmosphere for about a hundred years—I did not know this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it gets absorbed into the ocean—and I just learned what carbon dioxide is doing there: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification">ocean acidification</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is all quite depressing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The infrared image of CO2 causing the scientist’s face to disappear is a great visual.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">I had to chuckle at the question “Why so many engineers?” in the category of <a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/climate-change-a-consensus-among-scientists/">US climate skeptical scientists</a> by field—my husband is a civil engineer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hello!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Engineers build, construct, and develop land into buildings and roads and cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not shocked in the least!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">I love that <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/nsn08.sci.ess.watcyc.capcarbon/">Capturing Carbon</a> from the atmosphere stemmed from Lackner’s daughter’s science experiment—how cool is that?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She must be one smart cookie.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extend</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What other resources can you share?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.eiu.fusion/">The Elements: Forged in Stars</a> TD video provided the best explanation I’ve ever seen of the formation of new elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made the periodic table a lot less daunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this video would definitely be useful if I ever teach the subject of chemistry or Earth science, especially coupled with <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.origin/">The Origin of the Elements</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">The TD video, <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.greenhouse2/">Global Warming, The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect</a> starts with a question that permeates on the Kenai Peninsula: “Why should adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere be cause for alarm?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I struggle as a teacher to educate this population on “green” subjects, because they balk at such topics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Blasphemy!” they cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talk about looking at life through rose-colored lenses!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This video may help me in tackling environmental subjects, as it might get my students to listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">The car analogy for greenhouse gases in the TD video <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/tdc02_vid_greenhouse/">Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect</a> 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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all hate being in an unconditioned car on a hot sunny day with the windows rolled up!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I expect I would use this analogy either in discussion or show the video in an environmental class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">The video also mentions sources of methane—even rice paddies?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now am going to feel guilty when eating beef and rice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OMGoodness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">3. <i>Evaluate:</i> How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">As in past modules, much of this information was not directly useful for the classes I currently teach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am definitely reflecting a lot on the Carbon Connections section especially, as it more directly hits a nerve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall this week’s module was the most depressing so far—I’m left with a strong sense of no way out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s frustrating to hold the knowledge but lack the power to make positive impactive changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 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. . . </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">But I did enjoy riding Saturday in the Caribou Hills--the snow was superb!</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">3 Colleagues<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">I visited <a href="http://web.me.com/satherds/Explore_Alaska/Modules/Entries/2010/11/15_Module_VII.html">Dave Sather’s blog</a> again this week & found his Carl Sagan’s Cosmos video to be a great summary of life’s history on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s fun to ponder what it would be like on our planet if evolution had taken a different path!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thanks for the recommended read, <a href="http://indiancrkghetto.blogspot.com/">Konrad Mittelstadt</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Firecracker Boys” sounds interesting (and scary!).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://exploringalaskaclass.blogspot.com/2010/11/module-vi-atmosphere-around.html#comment-form"><span style="color: blue;">Kathy East</span></a> had some great pictures—the one of the “lobster” got a real chuckle out of me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love to dress my dogs up each Halloween, too.</span></div></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-60690327599514880412010-11-14T21:58:00.000-08:002010-11-14T21:58:41.289-08:00Module VI<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Essential Question:<br />
How are the Earth, atmosphere and cultures all connected?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Explain:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I did not know industrial pollutants bio-accumulate in the fat of arctic animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, am I surprised?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s depressing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just recently went all-organic with my body products: shampoo, soap, moisturizer, deodorant, etc.—what a learning curve for me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s appalling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the ingredients are manufactured outside the U.S. because the chemicals used to make them aren’t even allowed in our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet they’re allowed on our skin and in our mouths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you believe one of them is a common ingredient in most deodorants (even the ones who claim aluminum free)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But will we ever really get away from industry & pollution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really wonder. . . I know what I love to do for fun, and it requires fuel & lots of plastic!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know how I get to and from work everyday: drive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know production and materialism is paramount in our (western) culture—can we really overcome it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not so sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just have so much inner conflict about what we should be doing vs. what we are doing everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I recycle?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s overwhelming & I feel so bad about it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">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.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the consumers demanding the products producing the pollution. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxiV5EsqJQM"><span style="color: windowtext;">NASA ARCTAS Mission</span></a> 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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time lapse video really demonstrates drastic change over a very short period, and in science this is rather unusual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">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?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was very intrigued by this “sign maker” from nature according to Oscar Kawagley, an educator from UAF in the <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.watcyc.wind/"><span style="color: windowtext;">Alaska Native Pilots</span></a> video from TD, but am left wondering what that offers for forecasting the weather.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I visited <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/"><span style="color: windowtext;">NASA National Space Science Data Center Image Resources</span></a> and found myself out of touch with much of what was linked to here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My strength in science is definitely not space!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I decided to choose something that struck me as interesting when I started viewing all these images (with Greek names!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be honest, I felt like a man viewing a woman’s ultrasound baby picture!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw a lot of blobs. . . Anyway, I decided to explore <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn"><span style="color: windowtext;">Saturn</span></a> in depth a bit more on my own while examining the <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-saturn.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">pictures</span></a> more closely—the photos are really quite breathtaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG-DNGPSWo2nlctxiUp6JvuY3_vPkwFGmkXf5K5vs9mL7xE1ElWEGivufFjfdbNIrqJzXyHsaNlfgH2i0HwJJSTzC0cYbW0DSP4-thjRJDBF6o_ZvNFgP95SNgiVgBiGl1ao-LYSVh7U/s1600/hst_saturn_nicmos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG-DNGPSWo2nlctxiUp6JvuY3_vPkwFGmkXf5K5vs9mL7xE1ElWEGivufFjfdbNIrqJzXyHsaNlfgH2i0HwJJSTzC0cYbW0DSP4-thjRJDBF6o_ZvNFgP95SNgiVgBiGl1ao-LYSVh7U/s320/hst_saturn_nicmos.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I am left wondering how on Earth, no, wait—how in the Solar System—did someone figure all this out?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn"><span style="color: windowtext;">Wikipedia</span></a>), for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really fascinating. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.vertical/"><span style="color: windowtext;">Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere</span></a> is an excellent visual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an easy-to-interpret representation of multiple aspects of the atmosphere all on one image, which makes it very user-friendly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The YouTube video “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YAOT92wuD8&feature=related"><span style="color: windowtext;">Reveal Earth’s Atmosphere</span></a>” 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. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Another YouTube video that really got me thinking was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOYgdQp4euc"><span style="color: windowtext;">Making Ice by Boiling Water</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m guessing pressure change is the flash-freeze method for seafood?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Extend:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see this being more applicable is general discussion opportunities & adding to my knowledge base. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evaluate:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Overall, I found this week’s module very informative, more from a general learner’s perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have never been a natural learner when it comes to the physical world of science around us, while my husband is (he just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gets</i> barometric pressure, weather change, high and low pressure systems and their effects).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I appreciate this opportunity to improve my understanding of the world around me that I’ve long chosen to ignore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">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:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly cultures who have survived the most extreme weather on Earth for many generations have weather forecasting skills?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #e6e6e6; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;">3 Colleagues</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I visited <a href="http://ericexploresalaska.blogspot.com/2010/11/completely-random-observation-about.html#comment-form"><span style="color: blue;">Eric Ellefson’s blog</span></a> and he found a Stats link which graphs visitors to his blog—it shows an increase of visits on Sundays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interesting! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://web.me.com/satherds/Explore_Alaska/Modules/Entries/2010/11/9_Module_VI.html">Dave Sather</a> 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.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I actually found the ALISON link from <a href="http://danadair.blogspot.com/">Dan Adair’s blog</a>, but it originated from Cheryl’s site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How cool—an acronym spelled the same as my name! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems like a great way to get kids involved in “real science” and teachers, too. </span></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-22846619470974564152010-11-05T15:38:00.000-07:002010-11-07T22:57:43.719-08:00Module V<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif";">How are climate, cultures and oceans all connected?</span></b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37xawc0026pIR1X_4cs8mSBXrB5ejuRSLrli1a76f7LwOJme9D_W_iOWdOb1RNzaojh2D3aKW3f0rrV_9OLcLxiI0YWi7ip27fyLG6HTwR5MLDXyf2V3ekZbg4a_0L6_qcj8AZ2hRgH4/s1600/atlantic20100325-full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37xawc0026pIR1X_4cs8mSBXrB5ejuRSLrli1a76f7LwOJme9D_W_iOWdOb1RNzaojh2D3aKW3f0rrV_9OLcLxiI0YWi7ip27fyLG6HTwR5MLDXyf2V3ekZbg4a_0L6_qcj8AZ2hRgH4/s320/atlantic20100325-full.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like this image of global surface ocean currents because of the connected, ribon-like visual aid.<br />
from: spacestation-shuttle.blogspot.com</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">1. <i>Explain:</i> <strong>What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?</strong> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">I was intrigued by the animated image showing Alaska in the <a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ess05_int_seawifs/"><span style="color: purple;">Global View of the Seasons</span></a> and was left wondering why part of Alaska has white representing less vegetation in the area around Cordova/Yakutat area during the summer season?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That seems a bit strange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Overall, it's quite striking how much the Northern Hemisphere experiences seasonal changes when compared to the Southern Hemisphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect"><span style="color: purple;">Coriolis effect</span></a>! Oh well. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">2. <i>Extend:</i> <strong>How might you use this week’s information and resources in your lessons? </strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">I like the <a href="http://www.savethesea.org/STS%20ocean_facts.htm"><span style="color: purple;">Interesting Ocean Facts</span></a> 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.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyPLusD-tyM&feature=player_embedded&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1"><span style="color: purple;">Oceans of Climate Change</span></a> 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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, I could simply play the TD video for the class, too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Awesome example!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">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. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuiQvPLWziQ&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1"><span style="color: purple;">What Causes Earth's Seasons</span></a>" 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 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">widescreen</i> Smartboard to the kids and have them "travel around" the world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">3. <i>Evaluate:</i> <strong>How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>3 Colleagues</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I enjoyed <a href="http://ehhayesexplorealaska.blogspot.com/">Ernestine Hayes</a>' 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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Again, <a href="http://akknow.blogspot.com/">Matt Hunter</a> 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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://chenalakesfarm.blogspot.com/">Tracy Pulido</a> 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!</span></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-46707606994800291582010-10-28T12:07:00.001-07:002010-10-31T22:31:23.083-07:00Module IV<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>What new learning have I taken from this module?</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I did not know about the two different waves of earthquakes: P waves & S waves (<a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/kqed07.sci.ess.earthsys.quake/"><span style="color: purple;">Predicting Earthquakes</span></a> video)—but having just experienced a local earthquake at the end of school today, it got me thinking more critically about earthquakes. Each one I've experienced has felt different & unique. The video talked about how the P waves are experienced first, but they have less energy while the S waves follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The S waves are slower, but are more powerful & that has often been my experience in feeling earthquakes—except for today's quake. It was really instantaneous & somewhat powerful followed by the subtle waves afterwards. Was that because the quake originated only 30 miles away? Curious & interesting.<br />
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I was really interested in what a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot"><span style="color: purple;">smoot</span></a>" is—quite a fun story! I like stories such as this—history built right into a science lesson so that it all has meaning! Thanks for the little tid-bit. I was left wondering, how in the world did Google folks know to incorporate smoots into Google Earth's measurement??? Crazy!<br />
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I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know that Augustine is on its own island and I live just across the inlet! And I wasn't aware that Alaska is home to 80% of the US' volcanoes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>How can/will I use this week’s resources and/or others in my community in my lessons?</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can definitely see using <a href="http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmapfiles%2Fmapplets%2Fearthgallery%2FReal-time_Earthquakes.xml"><span style="color: purple;">Real-Time Earthquakes</span></a> in my classroom:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the first thing I wanted to do was check and see if today’s earthquake showed up or how long it takes—sure enough, there it was:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4.4 magnitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a decent quake and very nearby!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll have a fun time checking local earthquakes out using this resource.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIZ6EdLcEds5Qo_KuIl-slyTYSc2BQSr92ekjlXDUrVwI_8I-47NRI22kSGhuq5zokrlZLnh_PloSdY8wICYRWFO-A1G2LXcAvuiEqNOClvMiXT0RTDID5tQg_JVAQXf-RD4cpqU0Oo8/s1600/4.4+Earthquake+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIZ6EdLcEds5Qo_KuIl-slyTYSc2BQSr92ekjlXDUrVwI_8I-47NRI22kSGhuq5zokrlZLnh_PloSdY8wICYRWFO-A1G2LXcAvuiEqNOClvMiXT0RTDID5tQg_JVAQXf-RD4cpqU0Oo8/s320/4.4+Earthquake+pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In general I have found these Teacher Domain video links very helpful in adding to my virtual library of classroom resources—many of them I don’t have specified to a particular lesson, per se, but I consider them valuable for future units that I have yet to dream up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get bored teaching the same lessons over, so I’m constantly developing new units/lessons and these Teacher Domain videos are an invaluable resource for me to rely on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really appreciate this exposure to what it has to offer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources for me?</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I mentioned above about P & S waves, living in Alaska we experience earthquakes all the time—so often I frequently don’t notice them or wake for them in the middle of the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But learning about the different waves and the ability to notify the public about an event 10 seconds out is really valuable, especially living ½ mile from Cook Inlet where the consequence of a large earthquake—tsunami or tidal wave—is very plausible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I often envision such an event in my mind and imagine if time would slow enough for me to load my daughter, dogs, and cat into the car and allow us to drive away, would we really make it before the water came?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And would no one else in our neighborhood know, or would the streets be suddenly jammed with traffic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or would we load into our boat (the cat would simply cooperate here, I’m certain!) unhook the boat from the trailer, hoping/praying the wave would simply lift us up gently and push us inland and back without any harm, much like in the You Tube video of Lituya Bay, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN6EgMMrhdI&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1"><span style="color: purple;">BBC Nature: Mega Tsunami-Alaskan Super Wave-Amazing Survival</span></a>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<strong> </strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>3 Colleagues</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I really enjoyed reading Matt Hunter’s <a href="http://akknow.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-world-vs-old-world.html"><span style="color: purple;">“New World” vs. “Old World”</span></a> blog, thanks to Clay’s suggestion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What an anthropology review!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wholeheartedly agree with his quote from Frederic Chaffee, Director VM Keck Observatory: “It’s very easy in science to become completely absorbed in what we’re doing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get completely absorbed in what I’m doing whether it’s teaching science or taking care of my one year old—I have forgotten a lot of human history over the years and appreciate the mini lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was left wanting to hear more from him on Alaska—maybe we’ll get that next week. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://culturalconnectionsinearthscience.blogspot.com/">Janet Reed</a>’s blog has a couple of great photos—I’m very jealous of the snowfall in Valdez last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five feet in one dump is amazing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bet that kept you busy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the plane’s dashboard picture with the “never” sunset and “never” sunrise is great!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alaska is known for its extremes, for sure. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://dougsexplorealaskablog.blogspot.com/">Doug Armstrong</a> has posted some incredible photographs of Volcanos from the "ring of fire"--they are absolutely breathtaking! I drive by Mt. Redoubt every day, but rarely does it look as gorgous as his photo depicts. Definitely worth seeing his pics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div></div></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-91532762385037906002010-10-21T23:15:00.000-07:002010-10-24T22:25:23.775-07:00Module III<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Module III:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Landscapes of Life</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This week, I really enjoyed the </span><a href="http://alaskaculturesgeosciences.blogspot.com/2009/07/unit-understanding-alaska-landforms_10.html"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cultural Connections</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> section the most—all the videos were useful in sharing village stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love “watching” as opposed to just reading text—I am a very visual learner, so the images combined with the audio is very helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(One correction, though:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fairbanks is on the <u>Tanana River</u> which connects downriver to the Yukon. . . ). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was really impressed at the fish species ID by the biologist when they were just minnows —wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those fish were less than 2 inches long! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s learned skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The “</span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.life.evo.spirit/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spirit of Subsistence Living</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">” made me want to get up from my computer and go outside!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I appreciate the resources provided in this class, this video absolutely made me want to do what the Natives were/are doing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>go outside and experience this the “natural” way myself instead of reading, watching, and typing all afternoon and evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That being said, I think I will keep my post brief this week and do just that with my 1 year old before our evenings<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are shrunk to nothing but darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same with my kids at school—we need to get outside before ice & snow hit and appreciate Alaska’s fall season.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I didn’t experience the same “ah, ha” as last week, but this module was noticeably shorter, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think overall I just felt a strong sense of pride that I have many of the same or similar experiences as our Alaska Natives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing up here and living a subsistence lifestyle in a remote, one-room cabin for 4 months every winter with my parents and brother 20 miles from Minto (Athabaskan village North of Fairbanks), I really can appreciate what the land has to offer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Accessible only by plane, dog team or snowmachine, this upbringing was unique and my fondest memories growing up without a doubt came from this time and place with my family. </span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFR8Le5iCi9UbaVC2cFTUmW217G1gykNhpEciFMa2Q-g1QA4gcSLBilvo5J7uu9jflMp-NuNMbKQ8DSBtIk_C8UClLfQMMyZYHfhkPurkSfSALiNhcJS2sr9Hu4xv8P2KwEsAtiXlOTI/s1600/The+Cabin.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFR8Le5iCi9UbaVC2cFTUmW217G1gykNhpEciFMa2Q-g1QA4gcSLBilvo5J7uu9jflMp-NuNMbKQ8DSBtIk_C8UClLfQMMyZYHfhkPurkSfSALiNhcJS2sr9Hu4xv8P2KwEsAtiXlOTI/s320/The+Cabin.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Cabin at Lynx Lake</span></span></span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span>And now, as an adult I fish and we consume a lot of salmon, shrimp, crab and halibut as well as berries (Alaskan blueberries are my daughter’s absolute favorite!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But doing this seems somehow different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hauling water from a lake & boiling it on the wood stove prior to drinking and cooking; dog mushing as a child zipped up completely inside the sled while my parents trained dogs for the Iditarod; eating beaver tail and beans—these experiences are something I cherish from my childhood, yet I worry my daughter will not get that, even when we go camping, fishing/shrimping/crabbing or stay at our nearby cabin on the Kenai Peninsula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow driving/boating to it & having all the urban conveniences of home takes away from the spirit of true subsistence, it seems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think Native Alaskans really have had something special. Do they sense the same loss as I when they see their children and grandchildren utilizing more Western means of accessing and using the land, I wonder? Nonetheless, I still deeply enjoy exposing my daughter to nature by <em>experiencing</em> it as best we can, so here we are:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvY5zLfqaobYzPnwxjjVVcfuHIvGvIc3bzO08IpdheLKJPzXJec-BHELlds3tl6HP-WltvHwljK1ZL_jnKys_aAcia9GbOkVv8dCW-_6IhlKmMSq-1km5FCxJRT2hFDzPnWrw1Smwqeg/s1600/Prince+William+Sound.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvY5zLfqaobYzPnwxjjVVcfuHIvGvIc3bzO08IpdheLKJPzXJec-BHELlds3tl6HP-WltvHwljK1ZL_jnKys_aAcia9GbOkVv8dCW-_6IhlKmMSq-1km5FCxJRT2hFDzPnWrw1Smwqeg/s320/Prince+William+Sound.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prince William Sound 2010</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PCpFNV9Ix979eog_QCUSs1h1rXz9wdpyEfWB-JAT87oc14wfgoGYUy1NrMOiuxTMhqc0Z5i67uWq-l-kcCmOUUPsawdu0D2l8KJIoob0Nlb7pnKOXTl447zdO6-Q3_HVvEQDoffJynQ/s1600/big+shrimp.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PCpFNV9Ix979eog_QCUSs1h1rXz9wdpyEfWB-JAT87oc14wfgoGYUy1NrMOiuxTMhqc0Z5i67uWq-l-kcCmOUUPsawdu0D2l8KJIoob0Nlb7pnKOXTl447zdO6-Q3_HVvEQDoffJynQ/s320/big+shrimp.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Big Shrimp!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum!</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CKfL3MJEE4EDLzkzXYINWGHhxaHL8uLYAF9lJ8PkALel4_65Ua5QKyX7-AFzUbUVX7IOQHg9Ay4mzXBe1Cfs7-YVincwGvV6RaisxuJQnog6PtNnrEPIeGeYFftX7lXeBceKoAnzyJQ/s1600/Keira+skiing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CKfL3MJEE4EDLzkzXYINWGHhxaHL8uLYAF9lJ8PkALel4_65Ua5QKyX7-AFzUbUVX7IOQHg9Ay4mzXBe1Cfs7-YVincwGvV6RaisxuJQnog6PtNnrEPIeGeYFftX7lXeBceKoAnzyJQ/s320/Keira+skiing.JPG" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Skiing last spring</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qjErVi69KP3SY3bJQWXdXTE-vGBAEQKQy7c5_pp8z12GcLP62cWRWtEozH8S746TPcvbJxV3FtNJy0uKxEnuNh4UCB_PXXD9QEov_MpIJthBdhjRdzNGIhy8cQbAD9HgLKLYfcgdVXE/s1600/kindershuttle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qjErVi69KP3SY3bJQWXdXTE-vGBAEQKQy7c5_pp8z12GcLP62cWRWtEozH8S746TPcvbJxV3FtNJy0uKxEnuNh4UCB_PXXD9QEov_MpIJthBdhjRdzNGIhy8cQbAD9HgLKLYfcgdVXE/s320/kindershuttle.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I like to ski in the nearby swamp after school—the snowmachiners pack me a trail </span>:-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<a href="http://alaskaculturesgeosciences.blogspot.com/2009/07/unit-understanding-alaska-landforms.html"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Landscape Forces</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> provided some useful tools for in the classroom—I may consider using them when I teach environmental science next spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.rockcycle/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rock Cycle Animation</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> and </span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.shake/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> were decent, but perhaps a bit elementary for high school students (their attention span for this would be too short, I suspect). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Pangaea “</span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.plateintro/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Plate Tectonics: An Introduction</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">” is perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Short, sweet, to the point and visually memorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will definitely use this in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon reading the intro to “</span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.earthsys.aktectonic/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tectonic Plate Movement in Alaska</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">” I was thrilled to learn about “the surprising finding that there are still aftershocks being measured decades after the 1964 earthquake.” But upon watching the video, nope, that was the extent of the learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What, how, why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of these were discussed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was bummed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is cool to know that aftershocks are still being measured, I suppose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m just a “who, what, where, why, when?” kind of person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I loved hearing about </span><a href="http://web.me.com/satherds/Explore_Alaska/Modules/Entries/2010/10/19_Module_III.html"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dave</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">’s “WTH” moment in college—that was great!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks for sharing.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://explorepalmer.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cheryl</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">’s picture of her father-in-law standing up to his elbows in a crack left by the 1964 Earthquake is incredible! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you for the video link </span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/echo07.sci.life.coast.shorelines/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Living on the Coast</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.scienceinalaska.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alicia</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I enjoyed seeing Nanwalek, a community in my own school district and just across the inlet from Kenai, but a place I’ve never visited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It got me thinking, how exactly do the Natives get a sea otter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re pretty big!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the portion on New Bedford, Massachusetts was fun—what great accents they have!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved the pronunciation of scallops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have never heard it spoken that way before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fun!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But not that work schedule, whew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are hard, long hours at sea.</span></span></div></span></div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-7581289869328298212010-10-17T03:05:00.000-07:002010-10-17T22:33:41.488-07:00Module II<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists? What are the advantages to knowing both ways?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let me begin answering the question: “What are some differences between traditional Native knowledge and Western science?” with a work story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a particular heated issue in my life right now, so bear with me</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I submitted a request to my district to pre-approve this “Explore Alaska” class for continuing ed. credits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the last few years my district is narrowing the focus of the credits they’ll acknowledge for continuing education credits when it comes to moving over on the pay scale to being within the teaching position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I understand the purpose:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who should be financially rewarded for taking “underwater basket weaving” when one teaches science?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we also know that fabulous teachers are knowledgeable across content areas and have a wide breadth of learning experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, for one, love learning & just because I am highly qualified (I won’t go there today, I promise!) only in Math, Biological science, Earth science, and Life science this is all I can learn about and be compensated for????<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find this absurd and very contradictory to the Native way of learning: cohesive and inter-connected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, back to my story:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my district turned down my request as it was not within my teaching description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you kidding me????<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spoke with my principal and we agreed to have me teach an “environmental science” class this spring in order to have this class accepted by central office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ugh!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a “Western Science” approach to further educating our teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This scenario matched a multitude of descriptors from the right hand side of the </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4AsRch4r7m5IGm1XOY_6e-DID-NvHERv04bBtoblrUA8jtiWwVnNTO5z_S474MlWEfN6jH4ncs0t5VVOgsXf9oIQK9CnlZ-RInG-lOV0VbvXDx75Z8ojQzqlXfLXp8J5JnSKe9OWlH2A/s1600-h/ven_02.gif"><span style="color: blue;">Venn Diagram</span></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">: skepticism, part to whole, limited to evidence and explanation within the physical world, to name a few.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This course was rejected because the course description stated “geosciences” and I am not currently teaching earth or environmental science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionist_science#Reductionism_and_science"><span style="color: blue;">reductionistic</span></a>, or what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, I can see myself applying several things I’ve learned just in our first week together, like blogging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love it and can envision utilizing this in my computer science class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And learning about Alaska Native perspectives on Earth’s systems relates to ALL science subjects, particularly Biology!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay, I’ll put my soapbox away and get back to responding to our standard questions. . . </span></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Explain:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What new learning have you taken from this module?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Extend:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can/will you use this week’s resources and/or others in your community in your lessons?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Evaluate:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How useful, insightful, or relevant are this module’s information and resources for you?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reading & viewing this week’s Module II has helped me reflect on my current teaching practice quite a bit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teaching science at an alternative high school has helped me become more holistic in my approach for several reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have virtually no science supplies in the traditional or “western” sense: no lab setting whatsoever (my classroom is carpeted!), no ventilation hood, no beakers or hot plates, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we often go outside!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exploring what the outdoors has to offer is quite significant and relevant for my students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see most of the students who attend our school struggle with reading comprehension, their writing is poor, and they give up quickly when the lessons are too advanced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not attending school regularly in the past has taken its toll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many are not likely to attend college, but earning a high school diploma is their goal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to accommodate my students’ needs as well as my lack of laboratory resources, I have taken a much more naturalistic approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I teach relevant, thematic units such as Bear Safety or Alaska Winter & Water Survival, where we build snow shelters and learn about avalanches, including building mock avalanches in the classroom (out of flour and sugar) and analyze the angles, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we rely heavily on the Internet to provide us with visuals and interactives, much like this class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have used GoogleEarth in the past as part of a navigation unit, so I’m thrilled to use it here again, as it’s been a couple of years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This week’s module has been quite insightful and validating—perhaps I ought not to feel so guilty for not always providing the “Western” resources for my students!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://alaskaculturesgeosciences.blogspot.com/2010/01/western-scientific-ways-engage-now-that.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">western scientific ways</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> portion of the Module was a wonderful revisit to science I haven’t experienced for far too long—not since high school and college, which has been awhile now. . . I appreciate the refresher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I absolutely LOVE “</span><a href="http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.hologlobe/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Earth as a System</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">” video!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am so visual and this just had my brain firing at all synapses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some things just hit a nerve and this, along with the YouTube Symphony of Science “</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We Are All Connected</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">” video were two that I really look forward to using in my classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The barely-visible light of Anchorage showing up in pitch dark Alaska when Earth spun around on its axis was a stark contrast to brightly-lit Eastern Asia, eh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gave me the same goose bump feeling I get when I’m out in remote Alaska at nighttime looking up at the midnight blue sky with bright, twinkling stars.</span></div><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was born in Spokane, Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents flew there from Alaska to deliver me under the supervision of surgical doctors, nurses and equipment not available in Juneau, where they still live and I grew up. My parents promptly traveled back to Juneau after my birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I occasionally visit Spokane, I’m not really that familiar with the landscape, so thank goodness for Google Earth! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had fun playing around, but was pretty bored with the topography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spokane sits in a river valley & I couldn’t find much of interest, unlike Alaska’s landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, it’s been shaped by the Spokane River.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an an interior continental climate and therefore quite dry and warm in the summer, despite surrounding the river, and nearby to the West are a lot of farms, but otherwise, there’s not much to tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps I’m offending the geological society of Eastern Washington, and I apologize, if so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thoroughly enjoyed finding my grandma’s house and the park we visited this summer that my daughter loved, however!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m afraid I’m probably disappointing everyone in my lack of descriptive detail here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNVEl6JnrkyBpeTbY1F3m4aSkzgXbK-GjuOSmRFobDo34hz6hIQTLGwtFqQpPCBlFvtXlLVvUOhFC_3-mPMBohmf-PCFR95SIA-YdcN9qlnSueL_G5Vq-Ishl4ej4YWzzzMAIiTH9tFw/s1600/Spokane+Washington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNVEl6JnrkyBpeTbY1F3m4aSkzgXbK-GjuOSmRFobDo34hz6hIQTLGwtFqQpPCBlFvtXlLVvUOhFC_3-mPMBohmf-PCFR95SIA-YdcN9qlnSueL_G5Vq-Ishl4ej4YWzzzMAIiTH9tFw/s320/Spokane+Washington.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif";">The elevation of Spokane is about 2000 feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the included picture you can see the farms off to the West of Spokane and the valley the city sits in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no volcanos or earthquake points of interest, nor is there anything I could find linked with NASA.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif";">I really appreciated hearing <a href="http://mglehe.blogspot.com/2010/10/everything-is-connected.html">Martha</a>’s perspective on the significance of Native spirituality being interconnected with science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She very eloquently described what my heart has always felt!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Thanks <a href="http://explorepalmer.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-2-connections.html#comment-form">Cheryl</a> for your comparison of electrons between Western science and traditional Native knowledge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hi <a href="http://pathstoknowledge.blogspot.com/2010/10/using-video.html#comment-form">Marilyn</a>! I'm writing to you here because when I try to post a comment on your blog, I get an error message that comments are restricted to team members--do I have to join a team, now, too??!! Ha! I don't know if you remember me, but I was in ARCTIC with you in Juneau--gosh, it's been a long while since then. I was there with Terri--we were from Kenai. Don't you wish we could attend that conference again? What an amazing experience. I wish we could all have a reunion and see what everyone is up to. I had to chuckle over your "Plan B's, C's, and D's" isn't that the truth! Technology never fails us in that regard. I really enjoyed your Arcattack Farraday Fun video. That just looks like one of my students! Ha! Hope all is well and I'm sorry you're not still in Gustavus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://lila-on-integrating-ways-of-knowing.blogspot.com/2010/10/module-ii-universal-unification.html#comment-form">Lila</a> shared some fabulous photos of her students experiencing Native ways of learning including hands-on field trips, exposure to Alaska Native art work and she also explained how traditional techniques like using the body and its parts can offer great measurement and symmetry tools. Thank you for sharing--it brought back a sense of nastalgia remembering my own elementary experiences which were similar.</span> </div>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7311256038681940968.post-81983982216809282832010-10-05T12:22:00.000-07:002010-10-05T13:50:50.557-07:00Image of my Favorite Place<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8myCAGfQKXk-ScFImDe9Oux_2uuqYZCvMB-v3pX8phX2mIT6U_UPvjsFNM2hDt_PBydCZg5AztN1Y3aYmKrPHPJmC3aQGG58ZNxqRN9uiPm2Jre4MLKGOw085Ynu_L5McyL_DArdlEuQ/s1600/Alison+summit+Oct+2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8myCAGfQKXk-ScFImDe9Oux_2uuqYZCvMB-v3pX8phX2mIT6U_UPvjsFNM2hDt_PBydCZg5AztN1Y3aYmKrPHPJmC3aQGG58ZNxqRN9uiPm2Jre4MLKGOw085Ynu_L5McyL_DArdlEuQ/s320/Alison+summit+Oct+2007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This photograph was taken in Isabel Pass where the event "Arctic Man" takes place each spring, and where my husband and I go each year to enjoy some of Alaska's first (accessible) snow for riding--usually in September. This photo was taken a few years back and it's where my husband and I met 10 years ago. I was an avid snowboarder at the time and now I am passionate about snowmachining, thanks to him! You can just barely make out the mountains in the background--it is a breathtaking view from that elevation (about 5000 feet: in Alaska that's something!) and the endless snow is fabulous. Love it!</span>alisonLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008926836817691857noreply@blogger.com1