Lesson Plans: Experiencing Arctic Field Research Remotely
Remote Lesson Plans
From 2020-2022, JSEP was run in hybrid format. U.S. students participated remotely, connecting with students from Greenland and Denmark who were based in Kangerlussuaq. Graduate students and faculty from Dartmouth, with input from educators from the U.S., Denmark, and Greenland, produced a series of interactive and hands-on polar science modules that are adaptable for K-12 classrooms.
Salmon Life History by Madi Gamble
Understanding the evolutionary biology of an organism - why it is the way it is - often begins with understanding the organism’s life cycle. Salmon have a complex life cycle that includes two long and dangerous migrations between freshwater and saltwater. In this module, students will learn about the balance of costs and benefits in the salmon life cycle and consider how climate change could affect salmon life cycles and evolution.
Plant - Soil Interactions and the Role of Mycorrhizae by Amelia Fitch
This module is designed to guide students through observing differences between landscapes and ecosystems and asking questions about how plant-soil interactions might affect those differences. Because there is so much to learn about soils, we focus on mycorrhizae as a really cool example of a soil organism that is key to plant-soil interactions.
Food & Livelihoods: We are what we eat by Shauna Bulger
It is commonly understood that cultural norms can and do shape dietary choice on the individual and community-scale levels. However, the vice versa is also true; foods shape cultures and sustainable foods can protect cultures. In this module, students will explore the importance of both food and culture in arctic Greenland.
Snow and Ice Melt by David Clemens-Sewall
The rate at which ice and snow melt in the summer is important locally--for communities who depend on these sources of water--and globally--for the future of the Earth’s climate due to the ice-albedo feedback loop. Students will generate hypotheses about factors which could impact the melt rate. Then students will test these hypotheses and practice the scientific method through a hands-on experiment either in class or at home.
In-Person Lesson Plans
In 2017 and 2018, the following three lesson plans were developed by Dartmouth graduate students. These lesson plans were designed to be taught in-person however, individuals are welcome to the following content where they may make any necessary adjustments to serve a remote audience.
The World of Lichens by Ruth Heindel
Lichens are incredible symbiotic organisms that can survive in some of the harshest environments on Earth. They serve important roles in ecosystems as pioneering species, and they are used by earth scientists to learn about the timing of past events and to monitor pollution. The World of Lichens module includes a student-driven project and gives students hands-on practice with the scientific method.
The Effects of Temperature on Caterpillar Growth Rates by Melissa DeSiervo
This lesson and activity uses biological data on the response of organisms to temperature change to illustrate the mathematical concepts of rates of change, exponential growth, and logarithms. The first lesson includes a brief lecture (with accompanying PowerPoint) that introduces students to core biology and math concepts, and a worksheet where students answer questions and practice simple calculations. In the second part of the lesson, students learn about rapid environmental change in the Arctic and speculate how insects may respond to increasing temperature. Using a dataset on Arctic caterpillar growth rates, students will complete an activity in Microsoft Excel graphing exponential and logarithmic functions, and calculating Relative growth rate (RGR) and Doubling time (DT).
The Dirty Truth About Soils by Rebecca Finger Higgens
In this lesson, students will delve into the world of soil science by collecting their own soil cores and analyzing the cores for water, organic matter, and total carbon content by soil strata. Students will learn how soils link many of Earth’s systems including the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere and how soils can tell scientists a lot about a location’s natural history and climate.