Back to Polar Oceans Home page Back to educational activities page You can download this bookmark as a PDF and the activity text as a Word document Background: The ocean plays a huge role in climate change. Covering 70% of the globe, they store 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere (water can store four times more heat per...

Back to Polar Oceans Page Back to Polar Oceans Educational Activities Page This activity can be downloaded as a Word document (c) PHOTO Mireille de la Lez from ...

Clear, reliable, concise information on recent Arctic environmental conditions relative to historical time series records. Provided by NOAA with annual updates. Material presented in the Report Card is prepared by an international team of scientists and is peer-reviewed by topical experts of the Climate Experts Group (AMAP) of the Arctic Council. The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) provides collaborative support through the delivery and editing of the biological elements of the Report Card. The audience for the Arctic Report Card is wide, including scientists, students, teachers, decision makers and the general public interested in Arctic environment and science. The web-based format will facilitate future time...

Live From The Poles website Project Goals The polar regions are experiencing unprecedented environmental changes that have significant potential impacts on global climate, ecosystems, and society. Thousands of scientists from dozens of countries will focus their attention on the Arctic and Antarctic for two years beginning in March 2007 in an effort known as the International Polar Year (IPY). Live from the Poles will help heighten public awareness during IPY by bringing cutting-edge science to diverse, worldwide audiences of students, teachers, and the public. Our program is designed to share the excitement of polar exploration, communicate the importance of the Poles to the...

The aims of AntonyJinman.com are three-fold: To promote Education through Expedition To report credible eye witness accounts of climate change To promote sustainable technology for the future. "Through exploring remote locations around the world I aim to highlight environmental issues within the classroom. Expedition takes us to places that few people have been to. To travel to a place and experience such environments first hand is so much more powerful than reading a textbook in a classroom. Through use of film and photography I aim to share these experiences, to educate and inspire. " ...

Return to Main Land and Life Pages Courtesy of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the coldest and driest desert system in the world and represent 2% of the Antarctic Continent that is free of ice. This polar desert is a configuration of barren ground, alpine, terminal, and piedmont glaciers, and ephemeral streams. The high winds and bitt...

IPY Day Flyers with Classroom Activities (PDFs):
IPY Launch
Sea Ice
Ice Sheet
Changing Earth
Land and Life
People
Above the Poles

Polar Oceans

October 2009 Polar Week

March 2010 Polar Week

All flyers for the above Polar Days and Week are available in other languages on the International Polar Day pages.

Icy IPY Activities
Here are some of our favourite activities, as Word documents, that you can download and try in your classroom. Please let us know what you think of them!

Many thanks to Louise Huffman (LH) and Sandy Zicus( SZ) for sharing their activities with us. Please also send any other favourites that you have to Nicola Munro, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .


Blubber Gloves; Fat Birds-Skinny Birds(LH)
Sediment Tubes (LH)
Polar Animal Adaptation (LH)
Penguin Family Reunion (LH)
Explorers Fuel - Gorp (LH)
Detecting CO2 (SZ)
Coriolis Activity (SZ)
Comparing the Arctic and Antarctic (SZ)
Climate Activities (SZ)

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!; explore the properties of water and ice by making your own ice cream!

Experiments with Snow and Ice; simple experiments investigating the properties of snow, ice, and water, melting and freezing.

Ice in the Solar System; in-depth inquiry-based activities based on the physical properties of ice and water.

Compare your School with an Arctic School; a fun inquiry project comparing the students school/town with those in the arctic.

The site progettosmilla.it has an aim of explaining to the Italian students (with a target of 14 years old) and teachers, the ANDRILL project and the basic geographic features of Antarctica. In the various sections of the site, users can find detailed descriptions (made by a teacher of the educational project of ANDRILL with the supervision from ANDRILL scientists) of all the phases of the research viz. objectives, methods, instruments and results. The idea is to involve as many as possible students and teachers in the scientific process and adventure of the ANDRILL research. In order to support this, the site further contains: multimedia material (1450 photos, 20 videos and 10 audio), blogs, interactive a...

By, Louise Huffman, Kate Pound & Robin Frisch-Gleason (with help from the galley staff, McMurdo Station, Antarctica!) Background: Ice sheets cover almost all of East and West Antarctica, and most of Greenland. They are as much as 3 km thick. As snow accumulates, it gets buried and turns to ice. The ice flows out from the center of accumulation, and then moves across the landscape under the influence of gravity. The ice follows existing valleys and other low points; eventually it will cover the entire landscape; only the highest peaks might poke through the ice. The ice may also carve its own valleys. The ice may be blocked by mountains. If the ice reaches the ocean it floats on the water as an ice shelf. Objectives: To model how ice shee...

How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts? Download this activity as a PDF: What Happens When Sea Ice Melts How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts? Main photo: Salt water on left and fresh on right Materials per pair of students: 2-2 oz. blue ice cubes (In a small plastic cup, freeze 2 ozs of water mixed with 6 drops of blue food coloring) 2-16 ounce clear cups (Fill one with tap water and one with tap water saturated with salt) Directions: 1. Draw two glasses on a piece of paper. 2. Label one “fresh water” and the other “salt water.” 3. Draw a predict...