Science 8 Frozen Features lab

What will happen if the Ice Sheet melts?

Lab Activities to accompany Frozen Features: Past, Present and Future.

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Overview: In this class period you will have the opportunity to explore a number of learning resources to increase your understanding of the role of the world's great ice sheets in our planet's climate and water balance. Descriptions of these labs and demonstrations can be found on the web at the links listed below.

Pre- lab reading and questions:

Before working on this lab students should read about glaciers and the great ice sheets of Antarctica and the Arctic in the handouts given out in class.

There are also many good resources for this reading on the web. Here are a few.

Secrets of the Ice - http://www.secretsoftheice.org/

Glacier - http://glacier.rice.edu/

Glacier story - http://nsidc.org/glaciers/story/page1.html

Polar Science Station - http://literacynet.org/polar/

Sea Ice Glossary - http://www.antcrc.utas.edu.au/aspect/seaiceglossary.html

NOVA- warnings from the ice website - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/

Maps of the arctic - http://www.maps.grida.no/

 

Pre- lab questions: (to be answered before class begins)

• What unique frozen features can be found in the polar regions of our planet?
• How do these features change over time?
• What can scientists learn by studying these features?
• How do scientists measure the thickness and extent of sea and land ice?

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Activities and labs:

Part I. Ice melt - from Jason XIII

In this exercise, you will use math and maps to explore how much fresh water is contained in the Earth's two largest ice sheets by answering the following question : What would happen to the world's coastlines if all the ice in Greenland and Antarctica melted?

Materials -

• Atlas
• calculator
• water frozen in a beaker
• bucket of warm water
• copies of handouts - sea ice and glacial ice and map of North America
• blue colored pencil
• Web Resources for your use
  • National geographic maps
  • NOVA- warnings from the ice website - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/

Procedure:

Begin by recording the volume of ice in the beaker _____________

Predict what volume of water you think this will be when it melts _____________

Place the beaker of water in to the warm water bath, being careful not to submerge it.

Using the instructions on the handout from the Jason Project - sea ice and glacial ice,
calculate the total surface area of the world's water areas, the volume of the two ice sheets and how much the sea level would rise if the ice sheets melted.

Color in the map of North America with your results.

View the simulations of what would happen to the rest of the world here.
NOVA- warnings from the ice website - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/waterworld/

 

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Part II. Melting Ice - Examine the potential impacts of the warming on the atmosphere and ice sheets.

This lab has been set up for you on the demonstration cart outside of the classroom.

Observe the different containers and their temperatures at 5 minute intervals throughout the class period. Record and explain what happened in your experiment.

Container	0 minutes	5 minutes	10 minutes	15 minutes	20 minutes	change
empty -	.	.	.	.	.	.
grass-	.	.	.	.	.	.
ice -	.	.	.	.	.	.
gravel-	.	.	.	.	.	.
water-	.	.	.	.	.	.

Explain the change in temperature and why it was different in each of the boxes.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

lab instructions here - Aquarium of Maine - http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/human/melting.html

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Part III. Sea Level Rise- Examine the changes in the volume of water as its temperature increases.

This lab has been set up for you on the front table. Observe, without touching the setup.

Record the temperature of the water and the height of the water in the straw at the beginning and at the end of the lab period.

 

temperature at the start ________ , temperature at the end ___________

How much did the temperature change? ___________

What happened to the level of the water in the tube?

What happened and why?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

lab instructions here -Aquarium of Maine - http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/human/sealevel.

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Part IV. Visualizing Sea Level Rise - Examine the change in the volume of water in a container as an iceberg melts.

This lab has been set up for you near the sink.

1. Note the height of the water in the glass bowl, our imaginary ocean.
2. Mark the height on the side of the bowl with the special glass pencil.
3. Add the iceberg from the freezer. (this iceberg is to model an iceberg dropping off a glacier)
4. Mark the height of the water in the bowl.
5. Allow the ice berg to melt. Observe where the water from the iceberg goes.
6. Mark the level of the water in the bowl after the iceberg has melted.

Explain the change.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Allow the iceberg to melt. What happens to the water level?

Explain the change.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

lab instructions here - http://www.secretsof theice.org/icecore/sealevel.htm

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Extensions:

As an extension to this activity students may try the exercise described here-
calculating the changes in the Antarctic ice sheet using NIH image - http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/antarctica/ice.html

 

Credits for ideas, pictures and links:

the Gulf of Maine aquarium - http://octopus.gma.org/

NOAA sea ice images

Notes:

This page put together 12/02/01 for classes at Phoenix Country Day School - www.pcds.org