The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Ice Cores and Climate Change

Ice Cores and

Climate Change

An 8th grade STEM lesson

Elena Tellechea

5/3/2023

Notes for teachers

• This ice core activity takes place within a lesson on climate change. See PBS learning in the list of materials for the link.
• Collect full sized pringles cans ahead of time, and begin building ice core layers a minimum of one week ahead of when you intend to use them.
• Plan for one ice core per group of 2-4 students.
• Ice cores should be imperfect. Encourage students to identify details that will differentiate layers.

List of Materials

• 1 full sized pringle can per group of 2-4 students
• 1 plastic tub per ice core to hold the ice core while students are collecting data
• 4 different colored beads; each layer of ice will be labeled with a different colored bead to represent changing concentrations of CO2; I use about 50 beads total per ice core
• blue or green food coloring to make alternating layers darker to represent a winter layer
• worksheet for collecting data (click here)
• instructions for building ice core (click here)
• slide presentation (click here)
• PBS learning (click here)

Arizona Standards

8.E1U3.7

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about data and historical patterns to predict natural hazards and other geological events.

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Standards

Can be aligned to various math standards

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National Standards

NGSS MS-ESS3-5: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

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NGSS MS-ESS3-2: Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

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National Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.SP.A.1 (Statistics & Probability):

• Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. Describe patterns such as clustering, outliers, positive or negative association, linear association, and nonlinear association.
• Activity Alignment: Students plot their ice core data to see the "seasonal" fluctuations and the long-term trend.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.F.B.5 (Functions):

• Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear).
• Activity Alignment: Analyzing the "up and down" pattern of the graph representing annual seasons.

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Objective:

SWBAT obtain and evaluate data from an ice core and explain patterns found in the data.

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Link to 5E Inquiry Lesson Plan (My lesson has evolved from this initial plan but this might help give a more clear picture of what we’re doing.)

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Agenda (60 minutes)

1. Bellwork: Look at a picture of a real ice core and discuss the types of data that can be gathered.

2. Watch video then discuss how data is gathered and used.

video link

3. Review notes on climate change and compare natural and human influences in a table.

4. Think, Pair, Share: Does climate change occur naturally or is it caused by human activities? (There is no right answer, the goal is just to think about it.)

5. Look at a picture of our model ice core and review how to obtain data.

6. Students have 20 minutes to obtain data and make observations.

7. Assessment: Graph, identify patterns, interpret patterns.

Driving Question: Identify qualitative and quantitative data that you can gather from an ice core like the one in this picture.

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Students will have no idea what they are looking at. Explain that this is a long tube of ice and help them to identify:

1. layers
2. color of layers
3. number of layers
4. bubbles
5. temperature of ice

Hands-on Activity Instructions

• Prior to the ice core activity, students should complete notes on historical data for global CO2 concentrations and temperature. PBS learning offers a great resource for this.
• The day of the activity, review these notes. I attempt to do this in the slides I provided.
• Have a picture of the ice core to present so students can see what they will be working with. Review what darker layers represent and what changing bead colors represent. Model the types of observations students should make for each layer.
• Remind students not to pick up ice cores. They break easily.
• Students will only have 20 minutes to collect data. Make sure they know exactly what to do so that time is not wasted. Ice cores will melt some but should last the day.

Assessment

1. Graph data from ice core. This will assess whether students collected data correctly and assess a math skill of knowing how to build a graph.
2. Identify patterns. There are 12 layers. One goal is to create changes in CO2 concentrations that decrease in the summer and increase in the winter, to mimic natural patterns that revolve around changes in photosynthesis production dependent on seasons. This phenomenon should be talked about prior to this activity (Be careful not to give away the answer as students look for patterns. They will struggle with this. Use guiding questions that encourage students to label data points according to season). The second goal is to create a pattern that shows annual data trending downward then upward again.
3. Interpret patterns. Again, be careful not to giveaway the explanation for seasonal changes in CO2 concentrations. Encourage students to reference their notes from the previous day.

Differentiation

Pair struggling students with students who can easily identify ice core layers and identify CO2 concentrations. Ice cores should be imperfect and some students will be overwhelmed with gathering data.

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Many students will struggle with graphing and will need guidance on how to set up a graph.

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Most students will struggle with identifying seasonal patterns. Have them label data points (W) winter and (S) summer.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Something I haven’t tried is having students design and build ice cores to follow seasonal patterns then trade off with another group to gather data. This will require a lot more time and pringles cans!

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Also, I’ve thought of having students design a tool that could evenly drill out an ice core without breaking the ice. Start with research on how climate scientists extract ice cores, then have them design and build a tool that could drill out a small core from a frozen ice sheet.