Lesson Plans on Sea Ice and the Arctic

Discovery Education: Glaciers and Icebergs

This website provides a 2-day lesson plan on glaciers and icebergs. Included are objects, a materials list, directions, assessment, discussion questions, suggested readings, links to outside resources, vocabulary and educational standards. The lesson plan is intended for students in 6-8 grades and is freely available.
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New York Times Daily Lesson Plan: Ice Breakers—A Lab Experience About the Effects of Global Warming on Icecaps

This website outlines a detailed, hands-on lesson plan for 6-12 grade students about the effects of global warming on icecaps. The website provides detailed instructions, an overview, discussion questions, a homework assignment, vocabulary, assessment, extension activities, interdisciplinary connections, and links to additional online information.

Ice Core Secrets

This web page is a Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEA) classroom activity on ice cores intended for 8-9 grade students. In this activity, students explore the characteristics of ice and explain influencing factors.
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Snow on Sea Ice

In this activity, 9-12 grade students discuss the potential correlation between the thickness of sea ice and the thickness of the snow cover. They graph data acquired in the field to examine the correlation and draw conclusions based on the interpreted data.
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To Be Salty Sea Ice Or Not To Be Salty Sea Ice

This lesson provides students with an introduction to sea ice at the polar regions. It is designed for middle school students in 6-8 grades. Students use inquiry based lab experiments to understand the formation of sea ice and the roles that it plays in the global setting.
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Sea Level: Ice Volume Changes

This classroom activity, designed for 3–8 grade students, focuses on the long-term global sea level changes caused by ice-volume changes. This page is part of the Ocean Drilling Distance Learning Program at Texas A&M University.
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Natural Resources Defense Council

This page includes access to a number of answers to questions about the Arctic’s shrinking ice cap and its global significance. It also includes access to a “kid-friendly pamphlet about global warming and impacts on the arctic.
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NOAA Arctic Theme Page

The education pages for this site include many educational resources. For example, you can find information on tracking the location of the North Magnetic Pole, what kind of research is done by arctic submarines, the location of a virtual classroom, how to understand latitude, and the page includes a polar climate section for young children.
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"ARCTIC: A Friend Acting Strangely"

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

This web site incorporates images and information from the Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which was on display at the Museum through November 2006. The exhibition puts a human face on warming in the Arctic by exploring how changes have been observed and documented by scientists and polar residents alike.
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Sea Ice Board Game

A hands-on lesson designed to help students understand weather and climate. The game illuminates 14 of the most common types of sea ice and introduces the four stages of the sea ice cycle. The game is free to members of the National Science Teacher’s Association.
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Other Resources Providing Sea Ice Information

National Snow and Ice Data Center Education Center

This website provides links to information on all things cryosphere—glaciers, snow, sea ice, climatology and meteorology, studying in the arctic, and climate change. The education page also provides access to a cryosphere glossary, photos, and links to outside educational resources, including lessons and activities.

NASA: Modeled Arctic Sea Ice Thickness from 1940 through 2060

To better understand how polar ice might change, researchers often use computer models to evaluate data. This website shows various visualizations of a 120 year block of time from a 5,000 year ice model.
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Perennial Ice Cover

This NASA website provides images of the September 2007 arctic sea ice in comparison to the 1979–2007 average. An inset graph shows the decline in annual sea ice area from 1979 through 2008.
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Perennial Ice Cover: The Projection

This NASA website provides animated images of a projection of the decline in perennial ice cover in the Arctic, assuming a loss rate of 9% per decade.
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Atlas of the Cryosphere

This webpage allows visitors to view dynamic maps of the Earth's frozen regions—maps of snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost and more.
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MMAB Sea Ice Analysis Page

This is the sea ice analysis page of the Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch (MMAB) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Users can access images of sea ice extent that can be animated to show the previous 30 days activity.
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Vanishing Act in the Arctic

In this radio broadcast Mark Serezze, a scientist studying arctic climate at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, talks about satellite images that reveal how much ice cover is being lost in the Arctic.
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Sea Ice Nomenclature

This page provides links to a short, illustrated glossary of the most important sea-ice terms and processes.
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