We agreed that the Arctic isn't warming twice as fast just because there are more greenhouse gases.  There had to be something else!

Putting pieces together regarding how albedo decrease as sea ice melts, and sea ice melts because there is more longwave energy being absorbed by greenhouse gases, 8th graders are seeing this cycle first hand with real data collected from the MOSAiC expedition.  They agreed to update their models to explain this phenomenon, offering feedback to other groups!

We also returned to our Driving Question Board, answering questions that launched our unit!  I am so proud of you 8th graders!  

Students are seeing the ground cover in the Arctic is vastly different than the rest of the world.  Covered in snow/ice, there is evidence to suggest the sea ice extent is changing.  But why?

Using different colored surfaces to represent the snow/ice and ocean, students saw first hand how when the albedo changes from high to low, we get more sea ice to melt!

We're also seeing how if more of the ocean is exposed, this leads to a greater opportunity for shortwave energy to be absorbed and re-emitted with longwave energy.  And then throw in that there's more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, and it seems like a vicious cycle.

We turned to local experts who are working to gather data on the Arctic at CU Boulder.  

We've officially defined a feedback loop now, and are seeing how changing the albedo of the arctic, along with added greenhouse gases, is amplifying the warming of the Arctic!

With real data from the CERES satellites, students interpreted and graphed incoming shortwave radiation vs. longwave radiation emitted from the Earth.  The surprise wasn't totally shocking, but it's getting us thinking about how increased greenhouse gases cause  air temperature to rise, which in effect, gets ice to melt.  And melting ice exposes more of the ocean below it.  We agreed that the incoming shortwave radiation has stayed fairly constant in the past two decades, while the longwave energy has certainly been increasing (alongside the temperature).

We've updated our Earth's Energy Budget Model and our Progress Tracker, too!  Next steps:  see how the ocean and ice deal with incoming shortwave energy!  If this hasn't changed, how does the melting ice help increase longwave radiation?

So while all this figuring out about greenhouse gases has certainly helped us understand more about longwave radiation being absorbed and re-emitted into the Earth's atmosphere, students have asked for real data.  Does real data on the Arctic exist?  Like how are we seeing these scientific models unfolding that the Arctic is really warming twice as fast?

Believe it or not, there have been real scientists at work in the Arctic aboard the MOSAiC expedition!  We used VR to take a visit there ourselves and see just how they collect all this data!

While there is no disagreement that the temperature on the Earth has been rising, we are in need of figuring out why!  We've got some questions on our DQB that are related to something many of us have heard of, and that's greenhouse gases.  Using a PhET simulator on various gases in the Earth's atmosphere, we wanted to see how they interact with both shortwave and longwave energy.  

After allowing all gases to experience both longwave and shortwave energy, we came to this agreement:

We agreed that gases that absorb and re-emit longwave energy (heat) are greenhouse gases.  We also are thinking that the increase in these gases over time are what's causing the temperature on the Earth to increase.  We update our Earth Energy Budget.  Next steps?  How do they actually collect all this data on greenhouse gases?  Like on the Arctic?

Before we could figure out why the Arctic is warming so much faster than the rest of the planet, we agreed to figure out what happens typically on the Earth, when there isn't a temperature change happening, and instead, the temperature on the Earth stays constant.  We narrowed down some terms we'll be using for the shortwave energy that is emitted from the sun (visible light and ultraviolet light) as well as the longwave energy that is emitted from the Earth.  We agreed how both types of energy can interact with the atmosphere, the clouds in the sky, and the Earth's surface itself!

After getting their hands on a graph regarding the annual global temperature change, students are seeing first hand that the overall temperature on the Earth is rising, so much so that it's increased almost two degrees in the last century.  We've got lots of questions about this, and are trying to figure it out!

Not only are we seeing an overall temperature increase on the globe, but the Arctic is warming 2-3x as fast as the rest of the planet.

We came up with questions and investigations we could do to figure out what's going on not only over the whole Earth, but specifically at the Arctic, too!