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Curriculum Resources for the Alaskan Environment
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Subject Areas:
science
Timeline: spring
semester
Grade Levels:
7-12
Purpose: to investigate
ways to increase snow melting at high
latitude
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N. Davis
Investigation
of Snow
Melting
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 Activities
- Setup:
find a location of relatively uniform snow
cover, which will receive a uniform amount of sunlight each day
using willow wands or other small-diameter
posts, mark out one-meter squares in the plot (leave walk spaces
in between)
leave one plot without any cover
on several other plots put different amounts
of some available dark materials such as dirt, ashes, or coal
dust; barely dust one plot; put different amounts, evenly spread,
on the others; weigh the material or measure its volume so that
later you know how much you put on each plot
you might choose to use several materials,
some darker than others; don't make it too complicated.
- Measurements:
each day at the same time (within an
hour), measure the snow depth in each plot with a marked wand
probed down to the ground; record the measurements m centimeters;
you might want to average several probes in each plot (this requires
a little math-adding and dividing)
record the temperature
record the sky condition (sunny or cloudy)
report any snow or rainfall that may occur
(available from Federal Aviation Administration or the Weather
Bureau)
record average wind, either crudely, or get
average daily wind reports from the airport
continue these measurements until all the
snow is gone from all plots
record any unexpected events you think might
affect the results, such as dogs or moose walking through the
plots
it is a good idea to graph the various results
as you go along each day, to keep interest up.
- Write up a report:
analyze the effect of wind, temperature, cloud
cover, etc., on the rate of melting
include class or individual opinions on the
report
send a copy of the whole report to the Geophysical
Institute.
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Resources
- Snow Ecology Guide, Ted
Major and Home Ecological
Institute, 4860 Riverbend Road,
Boulder, CO 80301 or Center for
Cross-Cultural Studies,
University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Geophysical Institute, University
of Alaska Fairbanks
- Weller, Gunter (Ed.).
Alaska Weather and
Clirnate. University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute
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