Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day
What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.
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3-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Antarctica: Sea Ice
This video segment adapted from NOVA uses microwave images to reveal how sea ice doubles the size of Antarctica each winter. Rare footage shows how sea ice crushed the famous ship Endurance in 1914.
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K-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Antarctic Ecosystem
In contrast with its largely lifeless interior, the Antarctic coastal marine environment supports a vibrant and diverse ecosystem. Explore the region's living bounty in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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5-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Antarctic Ice Movement: Part I
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Antarctic Ice Movement: Part II
Within Antarctic ice sheets are fast-moving streams of ice. This video segment adapted from NOVA hypothesizes about how ice streams are the result of warming at the end of the last ice age.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Antarctic Ice: Sea Level Change
What would happen if a portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt? This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animations to show the effect of a 6-meter sea-level rise on coastal cities across the world.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Arctic Atlas
In this interactive atlas adapted from UNEP/GRID-Arendal, explore different environmental features of the Arctic. Select from a list of themes to customize your map, then zoom in to take a closer look at one of six featured regions.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Arctic Climate Perspectives
This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, describes how global climate change is affecting Barrow, Alaska.
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6-9 |
QuickTime Video
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Arctic Ecosystem
Despite seemingly inhospitable conditions, the Arctic environment has a vibrant and diverse ecosystem. Explore the life that thrives in this region in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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5-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Arctic Sea Ice Satellite Observations
In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Arctic Tundra
This video segment from Wild Europe: "Wild Arctic" explores the struggle for survival in one of Earth's most extreme environments.
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3-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Changing Arctic Landscape
In this video adapted from the Artic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Climate Change
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the difference between weather and climate and features groundbreaking analysis revealing that Earth's climate has changed much faster than previously believed.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Compare the Poles
Explore the defining features of the Arctic and the Antarctic in this interactive activity adapted from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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3-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Discovering Antarctica
Take a guided tour of Antarctica by watching brief video segments of its landscape and wildlife in this interactive activity adapted from the British Antarctic Survey.
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K-8 |
HTML Interactive
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Documenting Glacial Change
This collection of comparative glacier images adapted from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows substantial changes in five Alaskan glacier positions over periods of 60 to 100 years.
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3-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Drilling to Antarctica’s Rock Core
In this video adapted from ANDRILL, find out how geoscientists get through more than a dozen football fields of ice and water in order to study the rock and sediment beneath Antarctica.
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3-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Earth as a System
This visualization adapted from NASA maps progressive global changes onto a rotating globe. Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are shown to be dynamic and interconnected.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Earth’s Albedo and Global Warming
In this interactive activity adapted from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, learn about Earth's albedo (the ratio of reflected vs. incident solar radiation), how pollution alters albedo, and how ice-albedo feedback may accelerate global warming.
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6-12 |
HTML Interactive
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Earth's Cryosphere: Antarctica
Learn about the different features of snow and ice in Antarctica using satellite imagery in this video segment adapted from NASA.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Earth's Cryosphere: The Arctic
In this video segment adapted from NASA, take a tour of the cryosphere in North America and the Arctic using satellite imagery.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Earth System: Ice and Global Warming
This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explains ice's role in the Earth system, highlighting the delicate balance that could be upset with a continued rise in temperature due to climate change.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Earth System: Satellites
This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center shows how integral satellites are to everyday life and describes the different types, including orbital and geostationary.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Fastest Glacier
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, scientists in western Greenland explain how a glacier there is shrinking and moving faster due to increased melting.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Glaciers
Featuring images of glacier formations, this interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service explains what glaciers are, where they are found, how they form, and how they move.
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6-12 |
HTML Interactive
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Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story
Examine these graphs from the NOVA/ FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic increases in the temperature of Earth's surface and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
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6-12 |
HTML Document
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Global Water Distribution
How much water on Earth is fresh water? How much of that fresh water is found in icecaps? Lakes? Rivers? This interactive resource uses bar graphs to illustrate the relative distribution of fresh and salt water on Earth. Adapted from Oxford University Press
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3-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Great Ocean Conveyor Belt: Part I
This image from GRID-Arendal depicts the major circulation pattern of the ocean, illustrating interactions between temperature, salinity, and depth.
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9-12 |
GIF Image
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Great Ocean Conveyor Belt: Part II
A substantial increase in freshwater running into the northern Atlantic Ocean could dramatically affect climate and global ocean currents. This audio segment from National Public Radio presents viewpoints from scientists studying changes in ocean circulation.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Audio
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Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2: A Record of Climate Change
Using images and graphs, this interactive resource illustrates scientists' efforts to study Earth's climatic history for the last 250,000 years by drilling into the Greenland Ice Sheet and examining ice cores. Adapted from the Wright Center for Science Education, Tufts University.
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9-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Ice Shelf and Ice Sheet Simulation
In this interactive activity adapted from Texas A&M University, a block of melting ice simulates ice shelves and ice sheets and their differing effects on global sea level.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Igloo 101
Learn what it takes to build an igloo—from the best kind of snow to the most effective tools—and other little-known facts about these traditional Canadian Inuit structures in this interactive activity from NOVA.
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3-8 |
Flash Interactive
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Inuit Observations of Climate Change
In this video adapted from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an Inuit community collaborates with Western scientists studying climate change. Inuit observations are recorded and included in the data collection process, expanding the scientists' understanding of changes in the area.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Melting Ice
In this media-rich lesson, students explore the role that ice plays on Earth, the factors causing it to melt, and the local and global consequences of melting ice.
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6-12 |
Lesson Plan
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Mountain of Ice: If the Ice Melts
This interactive resource adapted from NOVA Online features a collection of images that show what would happen to selected coastlines around the world if the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Observations of Climate Change
In this media-rich activity, students learn how data gathered through surveys with local residents and data collected by remote satellites are complementary tools that help deepen our understanding of the effects of climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere.
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6-12 |
Student Activity
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Penguin Response to Climate Change
Find out how climate change is affecting Antarctic Adélie penguins and their ecosystem in this video segment adapted from Lloyd Fales and Sweetspot Pictures, Inc.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Polar Bears and Climate Change
In this video from the World Wildlife Fund, learn how rising temperatures in the southern Arctic could lead to polar bear extinction.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Satellites Orbiting Earth
This animation adapted from NASA shows the orbital paths of spacecraft in NASA's Earth Observing Fleet that are a source of wide-scale, primary research about Earth.
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3-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Stories in the Ice
Take a journey back through time, using ice cores to learn about the Earth's climatic history. From the FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" Web site
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9-12 |
HTML Document
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Taking the Earth's Temperature
This video segment from FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" depicts research efforts to record Earth's past and present temperatures shifts.
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9-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Tracking Polar Bears
In this interactive activity adapted from the USGS Alaska Science Center, track the movements of a polar bear as it migrates across the changing Arctic sea ice and compare the paths of four different polar bears.
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K-8 |
Flash Interactive
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