Activities

Inquiry-focused classroom activities developed by the Ice Drilling Program Office.

• Expedition 1: Polar Detectives (PDF)
  Students make a model of annual ice layers in an ice core, compare physical snow properties against chemical hydrogen peroxide data as methods of dating cores, then graph and analyze historic sulfur data to figure out what might have influenced the climate during the Year Without a Summer.
• Expedition 2: Checking Out Your Team (PDF)
  This teacher-lead, web-based module prepares students to interact with an ice drilling expert in person or at-a-distance. Preparation is required. Subject to scientist availability; scheduled through the education office.
• Checking Out Your Team: Scientist Conference Request Form (PDF)

These activities have not been vetted by IDPO and are offered as a resource for your use.

• Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets: Ice Baby, Ice
  Hands-on activities for K-8 students, including properties of ice, displacement, pressure and density, taught through information about polar glaciers and icebergs.
• Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network: CLEAN Collection
  A searchable database of reviewed climate-related curricula
• Earth System Education Alliance:
  Problem-based scenarios, incorporating real world data
  • Frozen Time Machines
  • Abrupt Climate Change
  • Ice Sheets
• NASA:
  Hands-on investigations, incorporating data analysis.
  • Studying Snow and Ice Changes: Students examine how snow and ice cover have changed on the Earth from 1994 to 2004, and to practice using some of the data analysis tools available at My NASA Data.
  • Winter's Story: Module includes three units: Weather Watch, Snowstorms, and Snow and Ice. Student Observers collect and compare their own data with professionals to better understand key investigative processes including snow pit protocols and ice core analysis.
• National Center for Atmospheric Research: Climate (NCAR): Discovery Teacher's Guide - The Little Ice Age
  In this case study, students explore how scientists study climates of the recent and ancient past.
• NOAA:
  • Climate TimeLine Tutorial
    The Climate Timeline Information Tool uses a "powers of ten" exponential approach to looking at different time scales. The focus is on past climate change, but a goal is to provide a context and background for framing current and future climate change.
  • Ice Core Observations (PDF)
    Students analyze information from an ice core diagram, then create an ice core timeline from an interesting historical period.
• Ohio State University's Public Media Site: Ice Cores: Unlocking Past Climates
  Five excellent, introductory background modules: Climate and Ice, Recovering Ice Cores, Calendar in Ice, Stories in Ice and Predictions from the Ice
• Polar Trec: Modeling Ice Sheets
  Working in groups, students use common materials to create layers of snow and ice representing thousands of years of stratification. Groups will exchange their ice layers and extract core samples to analyze them.
• Teachers Domain
  • Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
    Students learn about ways in which we study past climate change, and reflect on the present condition of Earth's climate. They explore the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere, and begin to consider the human impact on global warming. This activity sets up the next one...
  • The Effects of Global Warming
    Students conduct an experiment to learn about CO2 levels found in four different gases and CO2 production on a global scale. They look at evidence of global warming in our environment, and consider their own role in contributing to it.
• Windows to the Universe: How Do We Examine Climates of the Past?
  Students learn about 3 timeframes for categorizing past climates and compare different Paleoclimate proxies.