10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
[G04-05] Ocean and polar education using sea ice data from ADS (Arctic Data archive System)
Keywords:Ocean education, Polar education, Arctic Ocean, Sea ice, Global warming
・Introduction
The decrease in Arctic sea ice extent is one of the most apparent manifestations of global warming. The summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean has decreased by half over the past 40 years and is projected to almost disappear by the middle of the 21st century. In Japan, the decrease in arctic sea ice is featured in many science, social studies, and geography textbooks and student atlas books for elementary, junior high, and high schools to teach the influence of global warming.
Inquiry-based learning using real-world data is currently promoted in school education. Thus, students learning global warming need to develop the ability to discuss and consider its issues based on scientific data. As an example of such educational practices, we conducted high-school classes using satellite-observed Arctic sea ice data to help students understand the influence of global warming on the Arctic environment and the physical processes of sea ice formation and melting.
・Classroom practices
We conducted the class for first- and second-year high school students in two public high schools, one in Tokyo and the other in Saitama prefecture, in October 2022 and February 2023, respectively. Both schools are super science high schools (SSH) designated by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. To access Arctic sea ice data, we utilized ADS (Arctic Data Archive System) managed by the National Institute of Polar Research, available at https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/. ADS provides the image data of Arctic sea ice distribution every day from 1979 (Fig.1).
In the classes, we began by explaining the significance of the Arctic Ocean in climate change and its observational methods. Following that, students individually operated ADS using a tablet or a laptop PC to observe the decrease in Arctic sea ice extent over the years. They then attempted to predict the year when the summer sea ice extent would almost disappear.
Subsequently, to discuss Arctic sea ice formation and melting in more detail, students created an animation of seasonal variation of sea ice distribution using ADS. We then posed the following questions to students to encourage close observation and discussion of the animation data. “What do you notice from the data? Please answer one thing for each person. Anything is OK, but answer different thing from what the others have answered.” As a result, the students discovered many things from the data (Fig.2). For example, one student noticed that Arctic sea ice is formed along the shallow Russian coastal region. Another student noticed that the Arctic sea ice is transported along the eastern coast of Greenland to enter the warm Atlantic Ocean, where it is melted.
Following the above discussion, we conducted a simple cup experiment to demonstrate the contrast between the ocean density structure in the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice formation takes place, and that in the Norwegian Sea, where deep convection occurs (Fig.3). Through these active learning, students were able to share many ideas and learn various aspects of sea ice formation and melting processes in Arctic Ocean, along with the fundamental principles of ocean physics.
The decrease in Arctic sea ice extent is one of the most apparent manifestations of global warming. The summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean has decreased by half over the past 40 years and is projected to almost disappear by the middle of the 21st century. In Japan, the decrease in arctic sea ice is featured in many science, social studies, and geography textbooks and student atlas books for elementary, junior high, and high schools to teach the influence of global warming.
Inquiry-based learning using real-world data is currently promoted in school education. Thus, students learning global warming need to develop the ability to discuss and consider its issues based on scientific data. As an example of such educational practices, we conducted high-school classes using satellite-observed Arctic sea ice data to help students understand the influence of global warming on the Arctic environment and the physical processes of sea ice formation and melting.
・Classroom practices
We conducted the class for first- and second-year high school students in two public high schools, one in Tokyo and the other in Saitama prefecture, in October 2022 and February 2023, respectively. Both schools are super science high schools (SSH) designated by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. To access Arctic sea ice data, we utilized ADS (Arctic Data Archive System) managed by the National Institute of Polar Research, available at https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/. ADS provides the image data of Arctic sea ice distribution every day from 1979 (Fig.1).
In the classes, we began by explaining the significance of the Arctic Ocean in climate change and its observational methods. Following that, students individually operated ADS using a tablet or a laptop PC to observe the decrease in Arctic sea ice extent over the years. They then attempted to predict the year when the summer sea ice extent would almost disappear.
Subsequently, to discuss Arctic sea ice formation and melting in more detail, students created an animation of seasonal variation of sea ice distribution using ADS. We then posed the following questions to students to encourage close observation and discussion of the animation data. “What do you notice from the data? Please answer one thing for each person. Anything is OK, but answer different thing from what the others have answered.” As a result, the students discovered many things from the data (Fig.2). For example, one student noticed that Arctic sea ice is formed along the shallow Russian coastal region. Another student noticed that the Arctic sea ice is transported along the eastern coast of Greenland to enter the warm Atlantic Ocean, where it is melted.
Following the above discussion, we conducted a simple cup experiment to demonstrate the contrast between the ocean density structure in the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice formation takes place, and that in the Norwegian Sea, where deep convection occurs (Fig.3). Through these active learning, students were able to share many ideas and learn various aspects of sea ice formation and melting processes in Arctic Ocean, along with the fundamental principles of ocean physics.