Explain:
This blog was jammed pack with new information for me to learn. Before this module I guess I never realized how important glaciers are and how much water they supply us with. I never realized how big they can be. One part of the module mentioned a glacier being the size of France! I also learned that three quarters of all fresh water on earth is frozen in glacier ice. WOW!
Before I began the module, I knew I needed some background knowledge. The first thing I did when starting this blog was use Google and look up terrestrial ice. I then used Wikipedia and looked up Glacier Bay.This website had many pictures and really helped me to learn about a place I was unfamiliar with.
I liked the Losing Permafrost in Alaska video because it was filled with new information for me. I can’t believe that it cost 35 million dollars a year to fix damage due to permafrost. It is also mind blowing to think that the winter average has risen by four degrees.
During this video (Losing Permafrost in Alaska), I liked the native perspective that talked about how years ago people had to wear really warm winter gear, and now they don’t need that type of clothing. For someone who is new to this area, I always feel like I am freezing to death. I fear when people say it is only going to get colder. It is interesting to hear a native’s perspective about the climate change.
I’ll get back to the point where I mentioned I had no idea the importance of glaciers. I decided to google glaciers in Alaska which brought back a ton of results. Then I was interested in glaciers in Ohio (where I am from). I found the map of glaciers in Ohio to be interesting and spent quite a while looking at the information.
The video on climate change was particularly interesting. I didn’t really think about the differences between the two. It talked about how hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes are all weather events that happen when climate is predictable and stable. If the climate changes either up or down quickly, then this would disrupt life as we know it. I liked the quote “it has done it before, and is inevitable that it will happen again” This really made me think of all the research and hours that are spent trying to figure out when the climate change will occur.
While talking to colleagues about this module, a friend mentioned the Spencer glacier located near Anchorage, Alaska. I then began to look it up. It is so interesting that something so beautiful is so close to me. This is someplace I would like to visit before leaving Alaska.
Spencer glacier
Extend:
I will use the Alaskool website in my classroom. It is a very helpful website for in the classroom. I liked the profiles of the different regions in Alaska and think it would be different to look at the different regions and compare and contrast.
This module talked so much about the temperature and climate changing from year to year that I think it would be interesting to chart the information from the past 50 or so years and analyze the data.
Evaluate:
These resources are very helpful. They will come in handy when I think about the final project. Since climate change will impact where I live greatly, it is important to think about it. I know I mention it every week, but since temperature is an interest of my students, this module gave me many ideas of how to incorporate it into my teaching.
Colleagues:
She found an interesting resource for teachers to use. I also liked her different ideas of how to incorporate all of this information into the classroom.
Alison mentioned the Alaskool.org website which I thought was very interesting. She also mentioned an experiment she might try. I also like how she talks about so many of the resources and how they are insightful.
Amy found the part on weather and climate to be interesting when thinking about the differences between the two. This was also something that I noted.
Hi Alicia,
ReplyDeleteI also had to do some significant prelearning for these last two modules. I was unfamiliar with what exactly the cryosphere was and, like you, was pretty amazed by the raw facts. It's hard to believe that so much of the water in our world in frozen, much of it for thousands of years.
-Eric