Outreach
One of the most rewarding parts of my job comes when I get to give presentations to secondary school students on how glaciers form and flow, where they are located, how they are influenced by climate change, and how changes can be analyzed using in situ and remotely-sensed observations. I find this part of my job to be particularly rewarding because I enjoy finding ways to relate scientific concepts to teenagers so they see that science can be fun and exciting (see my guest APECS blog post "Inspiring Young Minds to Pursue STEM Careers" on May 22nd, 2015).
As part of my recent outreach efforts, I worked with the Rutgers PolarICE team to design an interactive portal about glacier change that utilizes real data. Check out my Polar Data Story here: https://polar-ice.org/focus-areas/polar-data-stories/how-and-why-are-glaciers-changing-over-time/! There are a number of additional resources available with the data story, including a lesson plan to help you incorporate glacier and climate change data into your classroom.
I encourage you to check out this cool glacier simulation tool from the University of Colorado Boulder to really help your students visualize the effects of climate change on glacier size. You can change the temperature and snowfall and watch the glacier grow and shrink over time. You can also watch ice flow using flags on the surface and holes drilled in the ice (called boreholes) as shown above.
If you're looking for something that's fairly entertaining and still educational, check out this penguin game! Grow and shrink your floating ice shelf to expose the water (and fish) below.
My presentations vary widely depending on the audience's prior knowledge and interests so I have not uploaded my presentations here. If you would like access to any of my presentations, please email me.
FLUBBER!!!
I've found that glacier "flubber" is a fantastic teaching tool. If you follow the recipe below, you'll get a nice low viscosity flubber that will deform fairly quickly. If you stick it in an inclined PVC pipe that has been cut in half along its length, you can demonstrate ice flow down a U-shaped glacier valley. It's helpful to stick toothpicks in a straight line across the glacier so that students can see the effects of friction on ice flow. You should end-up with toothpicks that have a U-shape at the surface and are inclined down-flow because the flubber will flow more quickly along the center of the pipe and closer to the surface! I recommend following the activity here. It's also fun to show the kids how to record time-lapse videos of flubber with iPads as a segue into remote sensing of glacier change (see photos above). The online glacier simulation tool under Additional Resources in the left-hand-side menu can also be use to demonstrate ice deformation and sensitivity to climate change.
Glacier Flubber Recipe
475 mL Elmers Glue
700 mL warm water
2 Tablespoons Borax
Combine glue with 500 mL warm water and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine Borax with 200 mL warm water and mix until dissolved. While continuously stirring glue-water mixture, gradually pour in Borax-water mixture. As mixture thickens, start kneading with hands until all water is absorbed.
