Big Science in the Northern Latitudes

For the folks conducting actual climate research, it's big math and big science to fit the pieces the puzzle together properly. (Clay Good)

Here begins the deep water. Global climate change can be framed as a complex issue, and indeed, organic chemistry and advanced physics are not for the meek. But just as citizen of our country have a responsibility to understand how our government works, as citizens of this planet, it is our responsibility to understand the basic science that allows us to survive. As teachers, we have the added responsibility of making sure our students are exposed to that knowledge in an age appropriate way. Our job is to get all kids to think like scientists.

This weeks lesson was filled with excellent resources that “even” a 5th grader could understand. One that I found quite intriguing was Soil Microbes and Global Warming. Much to researcher’s surprise, microbial decomposition does not shut down for the long winter as previously thought, and the implication for increasing CO² release is substantial. As everything is connected, this positive feedback loop causes the tree line to migrate north, which further warms the soil by holding snow like a blanket, thus allowing more plant growth and increased soil warming. It is counter intuitive to think that evolutionary plant growth is a “bad” thing but when looked at in the context of climate change, things aren't always what they seem.

All three of the global warming videos from TD: The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect, Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect, and Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect, can be shown to upper elementary kids. Their short format allows for easy playback and lots of discussion. Kids will get excited about scary thermal image of the face disappearing, masked by the added CO² and going out to the parking lot on a sunny day and letting students feel the heat trapped in the car, simple as it is, will make a lasting impression on a student.

So how do we get kids to think like scientists? Most will already come hard wired to it and if we haven’t bored them to tears with textbook lessons, turn them loose with actual research. Allow them to be real scientists. Put a weather station on your campus and start observing. Use Google Earth to visualize global weather patterns. Use Weather Underground (or any other weather site) to compare daily temperatures to you own. Collect data draw conclusions. Check out the link to the Arctic Climate Modeling Project. Here rural Arctic students participate in SNOW: Student Network for Observing Weather. This portal site allows kids to provide data to scientist investigating climate change. The site also has excellent inter-actives and media. A project that my class has participated in is called “Project Budburst”. It is another easy to implement “real world” research project that any age level can participate in. It takes little to no financial investment (although a digital camera is a useful tool for documenting activity) and a small investment of time. Our kids have already seen the early budding of willow and vaccinium due most likely to an El Niño winter.

With the Kyoto Protocol, adopted by nearly every nation but ours in 1997, global warming has been a recognized threat to our well being. Our newest challenge, ocean acidification, has come to the forefront only recently. While rising sea levels from climate change will affect many coastal Alaska communities, the adverse affects of a diminishing ocean ph to commercial and subsistence fisheries could be staggering. Check out this paper from the 2009 Alaska Oceans Science Bowl where high school students studied the impilcations of a changing ocean ecosystem on the fishing communities on Kodiak Island. Real science, done by real kids, here in Alaska.