By Kris Owens
Explain: What new learning or reflections have you taken from this module?
The extent of my knowledge of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit (IPGS) on Climate Change, was previously limited to having heard something about a summit taking place. I also remember a curriculum that came my way last year, something about the Circumpolar Year. I never really looked at that curriculum, and am now curious to dig it out and take a closer look. The issues at hand are critical ones, affecting our future and the future of this planet.
The importance of climate change issues to people affected in a very direct way, was made clear on the occasion of the IPGS. Indigenous people from all parts of the world gathered to discuss climate change. The resulting Anchorage Declaration, formalized the opinions, policy recommendations, and monitoring proposals, that were generated by the summit.
I particularly appreciated the concept of “Food Sovereignty Areas.” This is to protect areas, such as communities, air, waters, forests oceans, and sea ice. The ability to continue to live traditional, subsistence life-styles, relies heavily on protecting the land, and the rights of the people who live there. Overall, there is an impression that what is important to these groups is that they are able to offer their knowledge, communicate their stake in these issues, and to have their rights protected.
The arctic seems to be the “canary in the coal mine” of climate change. I learned that Shishmaref is a place where people are dealing with the effects first hand. Traditional knowledge is not as reliable as it once was, as changes in terrain, weather patterns, and game availability are occurring.
The TD movie Global Warming Threatens Shishmaref describes hunters as having to go further and further to find less and less. These is a ripple through all aspects of their lives and the place they call home, and as we learned, the arctic is changing at a faster rate than the rest of the world.
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| Village of Shishmaref, Alaska. Notice before and after a storm. Images courtesy of Nome Nugget Newspaper and can also be found at the the NOAA website Arctic Change. |
My understanding of why greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, trap and hold heat, also grew as I read through this module. As I was discussing these ideas with a friend recently though, I realized I am slightly confused as to why, if greenhouse gases trap and hold heat, they do not also prevent heat and light from the sun, from entering our atmosphere.
My knowledge of the water of our earth, whether ocean, rivers, ponds, glaciers, arctic ice-pack, etc., being considered as the Earth’s cryosphere, and the impact it has on climate and climate change, grew from basically nothing, to a growing understanding. In fact, the spell-check on my computer does not recognize the word cryosphere, so it must be a fairly new term.
The arctic, with its snow and ice fields reflects significant amounts of sunlight, helping to keep our planet cool. Water absorbs heat, while ice and snow reflect it. This leads to ice-covered poles being significant in Earth’s cooling.
Extend: How might you use this week’ information and resources in your lessons?
Our fourth-quarter theme this year is "culture." I plan to use the interactive resources, labs, and movies assosciated with this module this theme. Many of the Teacher's Domain movies are perfect intro- and/or follow-up movies for learning about different cultures of Alaska and making the connections betweeen science concepts, culture, our environment, and change, Also helping to make these connections wiill be Yup'ik story-teller Jack Dalton, who we are hoping to have as an artist in residence for part of that time.
Evaluate: How useful, insightful or relevant are this module’s information and resources?
I found this module’s information to be very insightful in a variety of ways. While I had a basic understanding of some of the ideas presented, others were completely new to me. The information on climate change, and the factors involved, clarified my understanding of what is happening on our planet, and will help me to be a more effective teacher in this area.
Previously, I had not realized the significance of melting ice-pack. As polar ice decreases, more open water leads to greater heat, as water has such a high heat capacity, and absorbs this heat. More heating leads to faster melting. It is startling to hear that this trend could lead to an Ice-free arctic ocean in the summers by the end of the century.
The module helped in my understanding of these ideas and offered a variety of resources that I can use to introduce these ideas to my students.
As I consider what to teach and use, I remember that my goal is to get elementary students excited about science, their planet, and their future. This can provide a foundation for more careful study of how some of the science concepts (for example the heat capacity of water) affect our planet and to consider solutions.
Introducing some facts and ideas too early, may leave some students feeling depressed and like there is no hope for the planet Earth. It may be wise at this level to play more with the scientific concepts presented, and less with the impact of some of these concepts on our environment. Just food for thought...
Three Colleagues:
Janet Reed: I enjoyed reading Janet’s blog for module VIII and appreciate the links included. Her approach to the three colleagues segment for this course is one I think I will switch to. It makes sense to leave a comment and post the comment that was left, for this part of the blog. Thanks Janet!
Tommy Gossard: This was a fun blog to visit and the pictures Tommy includes really enhance his blog. I need to work on this aspect of my blogging! His comments in the three colleagues part of his blog, led to my visit to those as well.
Jesse Bjorkman: Jesse does a great job of making connections and extending ideas in his blog on module VI. His comments on flash freezing fish and link to the Clarence Birdseye story are an example of this.
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