Polar Blast Class
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Educational Resources for our Future Footprint with the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium POLAR BLAST Teacher Resource & Lesson Guide POLAR BLAST LESSON Through the use of technology this class will provide a platform for students, without regards to their geographic location, to learn about the polar regions of our globe and the animals adapted to surviving in these harsh habitats. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the penguins that live at the Pitts- burgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. In addition to increasing knowledge program goals include fostering a mean- ingful connection to our penguins and thus encouraging further engagement in the conservation of our polar regions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Polar Regions ...................... 3 Polar Facts .................................. 3 Activities ...................................... 4 Journey to the Poles .................. 4 How Cold is Cold? ..................... 6 Fur, Feathers, & Fat ................... 8 Spotlight: Penguins ........ 9 Penguin Facts ............................. 9 The Basics ................................. 9 GUIDE SUMMARY Lifecycle ................................... 11 Special Adaptations ................. 12 Students will access videos, journal weather stations. Mr. Penn traveled to Pittsburgh Zoo & entries, and participate in activities Antarctica through a program funded PPG Aquarium Penguins ........ 13 to learn about our northern and by the National Science Foundation Living the Penguin Life ............. 14 Penguin Playtime ..................... 15 southern polar regions and the called PolarTREC (Teachers and What’s for Lunch? .................... 16 animals that live there. The Spotlight Researchers Exploring and Activities .................................... 17 Penguin section includes videos Collaborating). He worked with a Who’s Who Penguin Games ... 17 about penguins at the Pittsburgh Zoo team from the University of Wis- Be the Penguin Activities ......... 18 & PPG Aquarium. consin, Madison on the Automatic Weather Station Project. How you can help .......... 19 This guide also includes firsthand Resource Section .......... 20 information from educators who have Throughout this guide you will find Vocabulary .................................. 20 visited Antarctica. Mr. Michael Penn, links to videos and journal entries a teacher in the Shaler Area School chronicling Mr. Penn’s adventures. Journey to the Poles ................... 21 District, went to Antarctica in 2018 Journal entries from Mr. Penn’s trip Weather data chart ..................... 23 as a member of a research team to Arctic or Antarctic Animal Quiz ... 24 install and maintain remote automatic Penguin Photo Cards.................. 26 Penguin heights chart ................. 28 Each lesson activity contains extension ideas indicated by: Energy Saver Challenge .............. 29 CHICK for less ADULT for more Every Drop Counts Challenge .... 32 difficult extensions advanced extensions Junk Mail Recycling Challenge ... 34 Support provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation 2 POLAR FACTS Antarctica is the region around the South Pole. It is an ice-covered continent surrounded ARCTIC by the Southern Ocean. Ocean surrounded by continents The Arctic is the region around the North Pole. It is ANTARCTIC made up of the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by land. Continent surrounded by oceans The arctic circle includes parts of North America, Europe, Asia, many islands, and a huge ice cap PLANT LIFE over the Arctic Ocean Mosses, lichens and two flowering plants grow close to coastal areas. AVERAGE TEMP AVERAGE 10° to 20° F TEMP PLANT LIFE -67° to -76° F Small shrubs, mosses, lichens, and flowers can grow in warmer parts of the Arctic. ANIMAL LIFE Antarctica’s climate makes it an inhospitable place. Animals live both on land and in the sea in milder coastal areas. Seals, whales, penguins, and many flighted birds can be found here. ANIMAL LIFE A number of different types COOL FACTS of animals make their home in the Most of Antarctica is covered arctic, including polar bears, arctic fox, lemmings, by a thick sheet of ice. The ice caribou, musk ox, walrus, seals, whales, snowy averages more than 1 mile thick. owls and many other birds. COOL FACTS The largest land animal The name ‘Arctic’ is the Antarctic Midge, comes from a Greek an insect that is ¼” long. word meaning ‘bear’ in reference to the HUMAN LIFE Ursa Major and Ursa There are no indigenous groups or permanent Minor constellations. residents in Antarctica. Most of the people who The nearest land HUMAN LIFE live on Antarctica are scientists and support is about 700 miles People have lived in staff. In the summer, only 5,000 people live from the North Pole. the Arctic for thousands of on the continent. Only around 1,000 people years. Indigenous groups remain during the winter. include Inuit, Sami, and Yupik. MIDNIGHT SUN & POLAR NIGHT During the summer months the poles experience the “midnight sun”. The sun does not set below the horizon during this time which means it is always daylight. The opposite is true in the winter months and is called “polar night”. 3 JOURNEY TO THE POLES ACTIVITY Acquaint students with the location of the North and South Poles, describe the climate, and decide what equipment you would take on a polar expedition. Materials: Globe Internet access Books: - Who Lives in the Arctic? by Susan Canizares and Pamela Chanko - Antarctica by Helen Cowcher Younger students: - Scissors - Glue - Journey to the Poles student page (located in the Resources) Step 1: Read one or both of the stories. Ask the students if they noticed Where are these set? In the polar plants/trees in the books. The Arctic regions! Look at the pictures. What region is above the tree line – that do you think the weather is like? Cold! means is too far north for trees to It is much colder at the poles than it is grow. Instead, there are grasses, at home. This is because of where the mosses, lichens, and bushes. In the poles are. Antarctic region mosses, lichens and two flowering plants grow close to Use the globe to locate the north coastal areas. and south pole. Explain that the earth tips the poles away from the Show the last page of Who Lives in sun for about half the year, and to- the Arctic? People live in the arctic. ward the sun for the other half. This Would it be easy to live there? Why or means that for half the year it is dark why not? (hard to find food, shelter, for much of the time, and for half the stay warm, etc.) There are no indige- year it is light much of the time. This nous groups or permanent residents gives the poles the nickname “Lands in Antarctica. Most of the people who of the Midnight Sun.” live on Antarctica are scientists and support staff. It also means that the polar regions only get heat from the sun for a short time each year. A summer day at the north pole is about 50°F, and only about -5°F at the south pole – that’s below zero! 4 JOURNEY TO THE POLES ACTIVITY Continued Step 2: Extensions: Step 3: Pass out the student People have been Below are the links to journal entries pages. Let’s imagine a interested in finding out and videos of Mr. Penn and Polar- trip to the polar regions. what it is like in the polar TREC arriving and working at the regions for a long time. South Pole. What sort of things Many people have made trips to would we need to take with us? How did the team travel explore them. Give the students three things to to Antarctica? consider: it will be cold (even if it is the Have students research early What equipment did the summer), there are not stores so you expeditions to the poles. Divide researchers take with them? have to take everything you’ll need, the class into two teams. One team and you cannot leave garbage behind should research the first explorers to Journal 28 November 2018 Ice Flight so think of things that can be used reach the North Pole; the other team your whole time there. should research the first explorers to Journal 1 December 2018 Ground reach the South Pole. Transportation and Ivan the Terra-Bus! Have the students cut out the things they would take and glue Who was the first to make it to Arriving at South Pole Station Have the them in their suitcase. each of the poles? Geographic South Pole students share their answers. Why How did they travel there? did they choose those things? Is there Journal & Video 23 December 2018 anything that they did not need to What were their trips like? Servicing an Automatic Weather Sta- take? Why not? What else would they tion (AWS) in Antarctica take? Why? What equipment did the explorers use? 5 HOW COLD IS COLD? ACTIVITY Monitor and record temperature and weather conditions here at home and in the polar regions. Step 1: Set Up Your Experiment Extensions: • Decide which areas you will be • Use the data collecting chart comparing: school location to provided (located in the Resources Antarctica, school location to the section) or have the students cre- arctic, or both. ate their own based on the data • Check in with the University of Wis- • Decide what data you will be being observed. consin-Madison Automatic Weather recording-temperature, wind Stations in Antarctica: speed, time of day, the feels like temperature, etc. - AWS Nico is close to the South Pole. • How many days will you make observations? - Review the weather station data prior to class to determine the • What time of day will you amount of instruction needed. make observation? The date is in Julian format, time • How will you make your is in a 24-hour format, and all observations? temperatures are in Celsius. - Use an outdoor thermometer or • Compare weather data at a local weather station to gather various weather stations data at your school. across Antarctica. - Antarctic weather conditions - Nico, Sabrina, and Phoenix. - Arctic weather conditions How does elevation effect There are no permanent weath- the readings? er stations located at the geo- graphic north pole (due to the shifting of the ice).