We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

As Minnesotans, we are pretty familiar with cold weather and snow. But of course, there are even colder places – including at the poles! Check out some of this material, and explore their website for even more good things to share.

“Explore the fascinating natural history of Earth’s poles in NOVA’s Polar Lab. First, students consider and discuss the types of evidence scientists use to reconstruct past environments. Students are then introduced to the natural cycle between “hot house” and “ice house” that Earth has experienced throughout its history. Next, students use claims, evidence, and reasoning in a discussion of what the evidence about the poles from Earth’s past can tell us about its future. Discussion questions and video quizzes allow educators to assess student understanding.

Lesson summary

The interactive NOVA Polar Lab uses 360° interactive environments, interviews with scientists, and mini-games to send students on an immersive quest to understand how the poles are key to understanding Earth’s climate—past, present, and future. The Polar Lab, hosted by Caitlin Saks, is made up of three missions:

• Mission 1, Ellesmere Island, Canada: Students land in the Arctic tundra and are guided through this mission by paleontologists Jim Basinger and Jaelyn Eberle. Players encounter a 360° petrified forest environment and, through videos and interactive mini-games, must piece together fossils from ancient trees and animals to determine what this environment looked like 50 million years ago.
• Mission 2, Lab Exploration: Students go from the field to the lab. At Minnesota’s National Lacustrine Core Facility, geoscientist Julie Brigham-Grette helps students find clues to the past locked in lake cores. Then, at the NSF Ice Core Facility in Colorado, glaciologist Christo Buizert helps students analyze ancient ice cores to determine the role that carbon dioxide at the poles has played in our planet’s temperature.
• Mission 3, Greenland and Antarctica: Finally, students are flown to the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland with climate scientist David Holland and to Antarctica with ecologist Jay Rotella. They will learn how warming waters are impacting ice at the poles and what that means for the animals that call Antarctica home.

Students will complete the Polar Lab with an understanding of Earth’s natural climactic variations, from hot house to ice house conditions, and of how human activity is currently disrupting that pattern with potentially global consequences. The Polar Lab is an interdisciplinary resource, spanning Earth, life, and physical sciences. Although the missions must be played in order, educators can emphasize certain content areas through the discussions and extensions outlined in this lesson.

Time allotment

• 1.5 hours to complete three missions; 3 hours for the entire Polar Extremes Lab lesson plan with extensions

The Polar Lab is designed to be implemented in a curricular unit over the course of several class sessions.

Learning objectives

Content Objectives

• Students will be able to describe the types of evidence scientists use to interpret Earth’s climactic past.
• Students will be able to explain the evidence for natural variability between global “hot house” and “ice house” climates and glacial and interglacial periods.
• Students will be able to describe specific effects that our current period of human-caused warming is having on Earth’s systems.

Process Objectives

• Students will be able to analyze and interpret data related to Earth’s climate history.
• Students will be able to argue using evidence that our current period of warming is outside of Earth’s natural climate variability.

NGSS Alignment

The NOVA Polar Lab can be used to help meet the following NGSS performance expectations.

Mission 1:

• MS-ESS1-4. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
• MS-LS1-5. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
• MS-LS4-1. Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
• HS-ESS2-7. Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth’s systems and life on Earth.

Mission 2

• MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
• MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
• MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
• HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
• HS-ESS2-4. Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
• HS-ESS2-7. Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth’s systems and life on Earth.
• HS-LS2-2. Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

Mission 3

• MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
• MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
• MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
• HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
• HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
• HS-ESS3-6. Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.

Prep for teachers

Review the Support Guide prior to playing the Polar Lab to familiarize yourself with the game’s user interface and different sections.

Supplies

• The Polar Lab is accessible on web browsers that support HTML5.
• Students should be encouraged to use headphones while playing the Polar Lab due to the number of autoplay videos that appear throughout the game.
• To access all the different missions and minigames of the Polar Lab, use this Teacher Cheat Sheet link to launch different sections of the missions or to autocomplete a mission.

Students are encouraged to log in via a PBS, Gmail, or Facebook account in order to save their progress. Students can quickly create a PBS account using their email address and a password.

• Optional: Medium-sized poster boards, art supplies, and a printer for lesson plan activities

Alternatively, students can also use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or other digital presentation software for the lesson plan activity.

Media

• NOVA Polar Lab

There are several ideas from the NOVA material about trying out some new things. We are adding in a few extra materials to help you get started to bring this STEM exploration into your library:

• Have students/patrons find videos of the Northern Lights. Discuss their cause, and what people can do to predict seeing them.
• Find maps of the polar regions over a long period of time. What caused the changes?
• Find images of the glaciers spreading across the land in the ice ages. What did our area look like at different times? Were we under water? Under ice? Tropical?
• Have students find histories of different polar explorers. Write up an essay about one of them. What were they looking for? What happened to their expedition?
• Read about the histories of people who have lived in Arctic regions of the globe. What do they do to stay warm? What do they eat? How do they share their skills with their kids?
• Talk about cold-weather survival skills: layering clothes, building snow shelters, etc.
• What are some fun snow sports? Can you bring in skis or snowshoes to the library? If there is snow on the ground, can you go outside and try them out?
• Find some information about the animals and the plants that live in polar regions. How do they survive?
• Draw pictures of snowflakes, or cut them out of paper and hang them around the library.
• Write a story about going outside in the cold and snow, and the adventures that can happen.