Atmospheric Systems

Essential Question: How are the Earth, atmosphere and cultures all connected?

Explain

I thought this week’s module was great. I learned several things and am still puzzled by others.  I take so much for granted as an inhabitant of our terra firma. I knew of currents, but to explore them through the resources Clay provided was fascinating. I gained a new appreciation for the complexity of the elements in my daily life!

The main idea was currents, oceanic and atmospheric. The simulations on TD were wonderful visuals and provided information in a way that elementary students in grades 3+ could understand and make sense of the phenomenon.

I thought the cultural connections were scant, but much could be implied or researched. Native people are often thought of, as being good stewards of the land, but one problem every village in Alaska faces is garbage. Open garbage sites in rural villages are a source of pollution for both atmosphere and rivers/lakes/oceans. Many dumps are burned releasing carbons into the atmosphere. Other dump sites are near a water source and items are carried into the water system creating environmental hazards for life in and along the water way.

The garbage anomaly is in contrast to how precious the water is as it provides so many food sources for native people. It was painful for me to post the picture below of the garbage dump in Barrow, but it highlights a problem that villages are and have been trying to solve for a number of years. I feel, we each can do our part culturally for Mother Earth and dispose of our garbage in a more earth friendly way. It’s everyone’s problem.

In Google Earth I was astounded to discover the number of satellites orbiting earth.  This is space pollution (I guess I’m on a tangent). I’m wondering if the number of satellites are somehow lending to the greenhouse affect? And, it makes me wonder how the space shuttle is so adept at avoiding collisions with them. I wasn’t able to figure out the weather layers in Google Earth. I’ll have to go back and play around with that more.

Extend

I will definitely use many of the resources in my classroom. I have several folders created in TD and add to them with every new module. This weeks’ sites were particularly helpful in explaining weather fronts and ocean currents. Below are new links I found useful. They address the concepts of coastlines, oceans, and the last is a link to Aleut stories and legends. There’s a wonderful story about how the wind originated.

Three Colleague

Dave Sather 

The painting was very intriguing and the information on the explosion of Krakatoa was great.
Dan Adair 

I liked his resource image of the currents. He seems very knowledgeable.
Janet Reed

She figured out Google Earth and inspired me to go back in and figure it out.

 




Resources:

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.coastenv/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrrJTzXwKx8&feature=player_embedded#!

Image of garbage dump in Barrow, AK












http://www.native-languages.org/aleut-legends.htm
Scroll down to Origin of the Wind: Aleut legend about the doll-warrior who released the winds.