This video explains what Antarctic ice cores are, how they can reveal the history of our atmosphere, and why this research is so important today.
The video has great footage of scientists and graduate students in Antarctica taking ice core samples.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This is a brief video that can easily be incorporated into lessons.
The focus on the researchers may stimulate interest in STEM careers.
Additional Prerequisites
There may be a commercial before the video.
Students should be familiar with the terms atmospheric concentration, glaciers, and ice sheets.
Differentiation
This resource could be used in Earth science courses when learning about the evidence for global warming and climate change.
Science classes could also use this video to explore a real-world example of the scientific method and experimental design.
Cross-curricular connections can be made with social-emotional learning by further discussing the importance of teamwork and group dynamics, as highlighted by the graduate student in the video.
Cross-curricular connections can also be made with engineering courses by delving into the design process behind the instrument used to create ice core samples.
Scientist Notes
The resource investigates carbon dating from glaciers. The instruments and procedures used are appropriate. Students can learn how the process works. Thus the resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth’s systems.
