Final Project - Global Warming and Us

Essential Question

How can teachers use digital resources, community resources and effective teaching methods, integrating Alaska Native ways of knowing with Western scientific methods to create greater student interest in, and understanding of, the geosciences?

Overview

Students will work together to  collect information about the impact of global warming on the residents of Gambell, AK. They will use all resources available to them to compile their data including: interviews, digital resources, and textbooks.

Audience

High school students will be doing the work for this project including the research, interviews, picture taking, and compiling all the data. This project is intended for anyone who can benefit from the data. One of the most important reasons for compiling this data is to have a written record of the information gained from the elders in the village. Their observations are priceless and if they are not recorded there is a potential for them to be lost forever.

Objectives

• Create a written record of the changes that have taken place in and around Gambell, AK
• Create maps of how hunting patterns have changed in and around Gambell, AK
• Take pictures of areas changing from melting permafrost
• Have students interview elders and member of the community
• Have students create a digital presentation of their data

Image of Gambell taken
from Google Earth

Rationale

Students in Gambell see the changes that are taking place due to the change in climate around them. If you ask them about how hunting has changed over the years due to global warming they can easily tell you where their grandparents hunted and how they have to go farther out to catch the same animals. Unfortunately, this knowledge is not written down anywhere. I personally would love to see a map of where the elders hunted when they were young and compare it to where my students hunt today. The island is also changing due to melting permafrost and it would be really great if my students created a record of these changes.

BSSD Standards

TE.5.14 Student creates a presentation using a variety of media.

SC.4.23 The student demonstrates an understanding of geochemical cycles.

SC.4.24 The student demonstrates an understanding of the forces that shape the Earth.

Digital Resources

Inuit Observations of Climate Change

Soil Microbes and Global Warming

Warmer Oceans Affect Food Web

Arctic Climate Perspectives

Melting Permafrost

Unit Plan

• Students will learn about (or review) geochemical cycles that are at work all around them.
• Students will learn about different factors that contribute to global warming.
• Students will look at the changes that have taken place because of global warming.
• Students will look at the changes that have specifically taken place in and around Gambell, AK by:
• conducting interviews with elders in the community, and using their own knowledge to figure out where hunting spots have been in the past and where they are today.
• using Google Earth to show how hunting patterns and locations have changed over the years.
• making observation and using information from elder interviews about how melting permafrost has changed the landscape around them.
• taking pictures of changing landscapes.
• Recording observations from elders and other members of the community about how climate has changed over the years and how this has chanced their lifestyle.
• Students will create a written record of all the information they have collected.
• It will be the students choice how they will create a record of the information they collected. Choice could include, but not limited to: book, blog, website, Google Docs.
• Students will create a digital record of the data they have collected.
• It will be the students choice of how they create their digital presentations. Examples could include PowerPoint, iMovie, recorded presentation.
• Students will upload their presentation to the internet to share the data they have collected

Presentation

As a conclusion to the unit students will put on a community night to show their projects. This will give students a chance to show off their hard work and give the community a chance to see all their findings. I believe this information will be interesting and very informative for the community.