Review of Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics

Reviewer Information

Name: Connie Sergent

Position and Affiliation (i.e. classroom teacher, Circle High School): Science Teacher Ronald Reagan HS San Antonio email address: [email protected]

Technical Review (Does the lab function properly?)

1. On what platform are you testing the lab (i.e. Macintosh, PC)? PC

2. What is your operating system and browser (i.e. Mac OS 9.1/Netscape 4.75, Windows XP/Internet Explorer 6, etc.)? Internet Explorer

3. What version of any additional software featured in the lab are you using (i.e. Microsoft Excel 8.0, Windows Media Player 11, QuickTime 7, etc.)? None

4. Did you experience any broken links? If so, provide the title(s) of the page(s) and the name(s) of the links. Be as specific as possible when identifying a page location (e.g., Lab 1, Part A, “Click here” link to open NASA animation). None

5. Describe any other technical difficulties you experienced while reviewing the lab. Be specific and detailed in describing the issue(s). None

Additional Technical Review Comments: It would be nice if the first image, Arctic sea ice had a link directly to something that described it. It was great that the link linked to the NOAA Photo Library but I was looking for something to gain a perspective of scale on the image. The Earth Observatory Link was great also. Structural Review (Does the structure of the lab make sense?)

6. How easy or difficult did you find it to navigate the lab? Very easy

7. Is there any feature that would have made the lab easier to navigate? I don’t know of any.

8. If you became lost during the lab, describe the steps that led to the occurrence. Did not.

9. Did you understand how to navigate between the separate sections of the lab (i.e., Educator Information page, Student pages, external links, etc.)? Yes

10. If you experienced navigation difficulties, in what section(s) did you experience them? None

11. How do you feel about the overall length of the lab? It seems a little long.

Additional Structural Review Comments: The menu on the left is excellent making it very easy to just pick up where you left off. I think maybe Part A should end with the freezing of the water and then Part B should pick up where one retrieves ice.

Pedagogical Review

12. How useful is the Educator Information page? In the Activity Overview you don’t need the words “hands-on” to describe the experiment and you can just say “explore the properties of..”. Are we exploring surface currents or density currents or thermohaline circulation or a combination? Maybe a better descriptor would be” ocean/ic circulation”.

13. How useful are the Additional Resources? Could have the NOAA photo library link here as well as the NASA Earth Observatory link to the Dwindling Arctic Ice article. Great that there is a primer for sea ice thermodynamics. Could also have the “All About Sea Ice” primer link. NOAA tutorial on the Global Conveyor Belt should also be here. Otherwise very good. 14. Is there any information you would like to have seen included on the Educator Information page that is not present? Perhaps some background information on ocean circulation. Under the Teaching Note and Tips should be a statement regarding the need for freezing the water for 4-6 hours. This changes the nature of scheduling for the lab. So to say that the lab takes two 50-60 minutes classes is not entirely correct. Part A in itself has two parts, the measuring of the salinity and the making of the ocean water; and then the rest of Part A. Now after reading the more specific instructions of having 2 cm of ice on the top, I might make ice for the students before-hand. On an A/B block schedule the ice the students make would be frozen solid once the students got back to it. For Part B one could also make the salt water solutions in advance. This is so much easier accomplished in large volumes with a magnetic stirrer. It takes a lot of time to dissolve salt in large volumes of room temperature water. Most chemistry and biology teachers are not foreigners to premade solutions and understand the value.

15. Are the learning goals of Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics clearly stated? Yes

16. Are the stated learning goals well-aligned with the expected learning outcomes of Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics Yes

17. Does Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics provide enough background information and support for you to be able to implement the lab effectively in your classroom? Part A Great that the materials needed is in a pull down link on the student lab. Also great that the more about measuring salinity is also. Although this large amount of words is advantageous for the Educator’s page it is too many words for the student page. The instructions should be more instructional in format and words. For procedure #8, does the water need to warm to room temperature to test salinity? Part B Yes Part C Good background material. Do we have the answers to the questions? Part D Again do we have the answers to the questions?

18. Do you think Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics provides enough information and support for your students to effectively complete the activities? Part A I don’t completely understand this sentence: “The amount and rates of sea ice growth and melt depend on the way heat is exchanged within the sea ice, as well as between the ice and the snow and water at the top and bottom boundaries of the ice.” I understand the first part but not really the rest. See #20 Part B Once you clear up the issue with the salinity at the poles confusion, #20, the lab works very well. Part C Very good background information. Can you possibly slow down the animation? It is difficult to tell what is happening when. Part D Great that you show how to set the parameters on the Ice Animation Tool and show how to read the pertinent information on the animation. If instruction #9 was presented as referring to the decline in polar bears, the students would be more likely to read it.

19. Please provide any teaching tips you think might be useful for a teacher leading Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics. Read all articles in advance. Part A: I believe the students can manage the terms hyposaline and hypersaline. They learn about hypotonic and hypertonic solutions in biology so they have some experience with that. Also I would bring in how salinity is measured and what the average salinity is as a reference for discussing hyper- and hypo- saline situations. See # 14 with regards to preparing ice and solutions in advance. Part D: I would not have #6 be optional. Plus the students like doing stuff like that.

20. Will the embedded assessment strategies allow the teacher to determine if the stated learning goals of Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics have been met? Part A Good ”Stop and Think” questions. The first “Checking In” question regarding the salinities at the poles is VERY confusing. Especially if you read the document on salinity and brine because at the very end of that page it explains how “…the waters salinity increases…” and causes sinking of the waters at the poles due to density differences. I actually had to go and Google some further information to try to figure that one out. I think I would change the question to something general about the role of sea ice at the poles in thermohaline circulation.

Most students have never even thought about what happens to the salt when ocean water freezes. When I ask that question to my students they really have to think about it and are even then not real sure how to answer. It shocked me to find that most of them have never even used an ice-cube tray. Part B Now for sure the “Checking In” question from Part A is going to be confusing because the left over water from the experiment will be more dense so one would think the salinity would be higher where the student just read that the salinity of polar water is lower than the rest of the ocean.

For the question of why the global conveyor belt is important omits the role it plays in transferring heat energy from the equator to the poles and its role in the climate of the northern western hemisphere.

Part C “Stop and Think” questions - Maybe something needs to be previously stated regarding ice expanding when freezing. I am thinking that a factor in the pushing/pulsing of the old ice around in the polar waters. Which leads me to my next question, will we have the answers to these questions? I would like to see them.

Part D This one does a good job of the exploration of different time scales.

21. Does Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics contain an appropriate balance of guidance vs. exploration? Yes

22. Does Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics include enough opportunity for students to reflect, discuss, and synthesize what they have learned? I think this would have to be led by the teacher to make sure.

Additional Pedagogical Review Comments: I am thinking this would be a difficult lab to grade.

Content Review

23. Does the lab description on the Educator Information page adequately summarize the lab? If not, what information would you add? Something about albedo and also something about oceanic circulation - #12 from above. 24. Is the curricular applicability of the lab apparent from the description? If not, what information would you add? Yes

25. Does the placement of the lab fit well within the full sequence of Cryosphere labs? Yes

26. Does the lab make sense within the larger context of Change Over Time? Yes

27. Do you think Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics will motivate students to learn about the cryosphere? Yes

Additional Content Review Comments: Again great images and animations/tutorials.

Overall Impression

28. Describe your overall impressions of Lab 2: Sea Ice Thermodynamics, and provide any additional comments you have about the lab.

This lab has a number of concepts that will be new to the students I typically have. The concepts though are based on the scientific premises they have been taught in their prior science classes. It shows them a real application of science. It gets them out of their box. That is excellent.