Program 1: The Coldest, Windiest, Iciest Place On Earth
Student Learning Objectives
Summary
This program introduces and explores the geology, climate, location, scale, and history of the coldest, windiest, highest continent on Earth; one with 70 percent of all the world's fresh water, 90 percent of Earth's ice, and regions drier than the Gobi Desert. Antarctica plays a crucial role in global climate and holds clues to our planet's future. And while today it seems locked into its icy identity, it was once very different, a reminder of how drastic planetary climate changes can be. In this program, students will learn how and why Antarctica has changed over time, how ancient continents formed and broke up, and what Antarctica can reveal about Earth today and in the future.
In addition to setting the scene for programs to come, this program will show how the United States conducts research in the Antarctic: the complex logistics involved, the communications systems required to stay alive, day- to-day existence for researchers working in extreme conditions, and the challenge and excitement of field research.
Locations in Antarctica
Locations in the United States
Featured Experts
Anne Grunow and her team of researchers believe they have found geological, geophysical, and other evidence that a pre-Cambrian supercontinent existed 750 million years ago. Before there was a Gondwanaland, this super land mass comprised all of Earth's now-existing land masses, although at considerably different locations. Among the products of this line of inquiry are: the hypothesis that the western coast of South America and the eastern coast of North America were once joined; the hypothesis that the Texas Gulf coastline once abutted the coastline of East Antarctica.
J. T. Young is a member of a team of meteorologists that has established a series of automatic weather stations (AWS) for Antarctica and Greenland. Data collected at these stations are transmitted to polar-orbiting satellites for analysis in real time. Meteorologists are using data from these AWS units to:
Objectives
To have students locate specific places in Antarctica that will be
visited during the "virtual" field trip
To have students compare geographic facts about Antarctica
with the state in which they live
Engage
Antarctica is a continent of solid land, covered by a vast sheet of ice and surrounded by frozen oceans. Antarctica has some of the most extreme environments in the world. It has the coldest, windiest climate on Earth. It also has valleys known to be some of the driest areas in the world. It has the highest average elevation of any continent and contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water.
Before your students embark on their "virtual" field trip to Antarctica, see if they can identify some of these "extremes." Then see if they can put these into perspective and compare them to geological features in their own state.
Explore: Comparing Worlds
A map of Antarctica is printed on the top half of the student worksheet #1. Have students draw the outline of their state on the bottom half of the worksheet. On student worksheet #2 are categories of facts and figures. Have students use appropriate reference materials to identify these categories for Antarctica and their own state. Also on worksheet #2 is a list of places in Antarctica to be visited. Have students locate and label each of these places on the map of Antarctica. Encourage students to identify other geographical features common to both places.
Explain
Create a large map of Antarctica and a large map of your state on a bulletin board. Have different groups of students be responsible for different categories of facts and features. Have them label these on the maps for others to compare. They can use yarn to connect the feature in Antarctica to the feature in their state.
Expand
What would it be like:
Before watching the programs, have students think about what it would be
like to live or work in a place like Antarctica. Have students write
descriptions or draw pictures of what they think it would be like in the Dry
Valleys or on the ice-covered land. What do they think the town of McMurdo
would be like? If they were to go to Antarctica to live, what would be the
most difficult thing to cope with? How do they think they would cope? If
they were scientists and had the opportunity to go to Antarctica, what would
they like to research or study? Why?
Student Worksheets
Worksheet #1- Outline map of Antarctica (see fig.1.1) Draw an outline map of your state.
Worksheet #2- Use an atlas, encyclopedia, or map to complete the following Facts and Features for Antarctica and your state. List them in the appropriate column and then locate them on your maps. Include any other facts or features you find that pertain to both.
Facts and Features Antarctica Your State Highest elevation Lowest elevation Highest temperature Lowest temperature Mountain ranges Inland lakes, rivers Deserts (avg. precipitation) Types of vegetation, where found Types of animals, where found Largest population centers Smallest population centers Wilderness areas
Places in Antarctica to Be Visited During Your Field Trip- Locate the following places and add them to the map (fig.1.1):
South Pole McMurdo Station Weddell Sea McMurdo Dry Valleys East Antarctic Ice Sheet Ross Ice Shelf Filchner/Ronne Ice Shelves Indian Ocean Antarctica Peninsula Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean Transantarctic Mountains West Antarctica
Objectives
To have students trace the movement of the continents over the past 600 million years to help them understand how their size and position has changed over time
Engage
The continents of the world have not always been the shapes they are, nor situated where they are today. Scientists have been able to trace continental movements back to an epoch some 600 million years ago. Patterns and continuities in land formations and fossils found in now-separated continents are clues that scientists use to develop a still-developing understanding of how land masses have moved across our planet. The past can give us clues for thinking about the future. The following activities will help your students understand how the continents came to be where they are today.
Explore
Antarctica has not always been a lone continent located in the southernmost region of the Earth. It was once part of a larger land mass that gradually moved southward from the equator.
Map 1 (fig.1.2) shows the position of the world's land masses 600 million years ago. Make a transparency of the map and use it to help the students label the land masses. Notice that the strip of land that stretches from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida was originally thought to be attached to South America and lay south of the Antarctic Circle. How and when did it become part of North America?
Map 2 (fig.1.3) shows the position of the land masses 443 million years ago. Again, use a transparency to help the students label the land masses. Notice how South America and Africa have elongated, how Antarctica is moving southward and how the strip of the Yucatan Peninsula and Florida is moving closer to North America.
Key to Maps 1 and 2:
Explain
Gondwana began breaking apart about 180 million years ago during the late Jurassic Period. India crashed into Asia to form the Himalayas, Africa moved north colliding with Eurasia to form the Alps, and Madagascar and Saudi Arabia separated from Africa.
Our understanding of the geology of Antarctica is based on the theory of plate tectonics that describes the earth's crust as being composed of 6 large plates (and some smaller ones) that float on top of a semifluid mantle. At first this was very controversial, and scientists still have different theories about plate movements and continental drift. And the movement continues. In hundreds of millions of years from now, it is possible that California and Japan may be close neighbors. (see figs.1.4,1.5)
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Scientists have found fossils of similar plants and animals on different continents leading them to believe that the continents were once connected. Write your own theory of how Antarctica got to where it is, what other continents it may have been connected to in the past, and where you think it will be in a million years.
And Where Was North America?
A relatively new theory of the history of continents has a truncated Laurentia (what was to become North America in an upside down, eastern orientation, connected to Gondwanaland). What is now Texas was joined to Antarctica and what is now Alaska was attached to Australia. As the Mozambique channel opened between Antarctica and India on one side and Africa on the other side, the North American continent moved clockwise to an upside-down position, and then around to the left turning upright with the current eastern coast crashing into the current western coast of South America. According to this theory, Australia and Antarctica were still attached along the current western side of North America. So, North America was sandwiched between South America on the east and Australia- Antarctica on the west, with Canada facing north, and the equator running through the Midwest. The Atlantic Ocean opened, the South American continent continued its rotation clockwise, the Pacific sea floor spread, and Australia and Antarctica moved to the west.
You will be able to see a computer graphics depiction of this theory on your first electronic field trip to Antarctica on Dec. 13.
O Beautiful for Spacious Seas and Everlasting Snow For Floating Icebergs Traveling and Freezing Winds that Blow Antarctica Antarctica That I Admire So A Place to See of Majesty The Mysterious South Pole O Beautiful for Winged Birds and Singing Baleen Whales For Leopard Seals and Big Ship Sails And Old Explorers' Tales Antarctica Antarctica A Gorgeous Sight to See A Land of Peace for You and Me Gray Sky to Deep Blue Sea by Jenna Rice Lura Thorp's 2d/3d Grade Class, Lagunitas School, San Geronimo, CA
Getting There
One writer who has visited Antarctica (and who may well be seen in this program since she plans to spend time with Anne Grunow) is Rebecca Johnson. Here is her word-picture of what it's like to fly into Antarctica in the middle of the Antarctic winter, when it is perpetual night.
"Imagine being crammed together with several dozen other people, sitting awkwardly in uncomfortable webbed seats inside the hold of a cold, noisy military cargo plane. An industrial-strength seat belt keeps you in place whenever the plane swerves and lurches as it is tossed around by the winds outside. You are wearing the foam rubber earplugs you were given when you climbed aboard, but the roar of the engines is still deafening. Everyone around you is dressed in exactly the same outfit: a big red down parka with a fur-trimmed hood, black pants with lots of pockets, red and black wool shirt (with long underwear peeking out the neck), and huge white boots that look like something Mickey Mouse would wear. It's all part of the polar survival gear that you will wear whenever you're outside in the weeks to come.
The plane has been airborne for five hours. By now your feet and hands are icy cold, and your legs are cramped from sitting still for so long. You've eaten all the sandwiches, fruit, and cookies that were in the box lunch you were handed as you boarded the plane. But you still have several hours yet to go before you reach your destination: McMurdo Station on Ross Island, Antarctica.
There are no windows to look out of on this flight; only the pilots get a view. But even if there were windows, there would be little to see--just stars overhead and darkness down below. It is August 22 and still winter at the bottom of the world.
Even at the best time of the year, during the daylight summer season, traveling to Antarctica is a long, hard, dangerous journey. But this particular plane is traveling to Antarctica at one of the worst times of the year. In August, temperatures at McMurdo average -30 degrees Centigrade (-22 degrees Fahrenheit), and the winds can be ferocious. Swooping down out of the sky to set down on Antarctica's dark, frozen landscape is a challenge for the pilot and a heart-stopping experience for the passengers. Why would these people want to risk flying to Antarctica now? Because it's the best time to study the Antarctic ozone hole." from Investigating the Ozone Hole, by Rebecca L. Johnson, Lerner 1994
Along with the general list of resources on Antarctica, the following resources are recommended for Program 1:
Books
Aylesworth, Thomas. Moving Continents: Our Changing Earth. Hillside, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1990. Golden, Frederic, and Niccoll, Ingrid. The Moving Continents. New York: Scribner, 1972. Michel, Francois. The Restless Earth. Penguin, 1990. Miller, Russell. Continents in Collision. Time-Life, 1983.
Magazine Articles
"Antarctica," Odyssey Magazine, January 1994, Cobblestone Publishing. "Antarctica," Odyssey Magazine, May 1993, Cobbleston Publishing. "Greetings from Pangaea," Discover, February 1992.
Videos, Filmstrips, CD-ROM, and Video discs
Our Dynamic Earth, National Geographic Society, VHS video, 23 minutes, color, gr. 7-12, 1979. Our Everchanging Earth: Plate Tectonics, An Introduction, and Changing the Earth's Surface, National Geographic Society, filmstrips with cassettes, gr. 5-9, 1990. The Theory of Plate Tectonics, CD-ROM for Mac or Windows, requires 4M RAM. IBM version requires SVGA monitor and Windows. High School level: $75.00. Available from TASA Graphic Arts, Inc., 15 Nexus Lane, Tijeras, New Mexico 87059 or call (505) 281-9090. STV: Our Restless Earth, National Geographic Society, Level I and Level III videodisc, gr. 5-12, 1992. (Level I, $225.00; Level III, $325.00)
Puzzles
The Puzzle of the Plates by American Geophysical Union, 2000 Florida Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 (Created by Athelstan Spilhaus. A puzzle for studying plate tectonics: 18 movable pieces, 4 frame pieces, 16 pg. booklet explaining continental drift and how to use the puzzle.)
