Northern Climate Change Schools Program
Lesson Plan

Grade Levels: 10-12

Author: Orvil Dillenbeck, Qaqqalik School, Kimmirut, Nunavut

Overview:
These activities have grown out of an ongoing study at Qaqqalik School to measure sea ice thickness and extent in the area. In the classroom, students learn the importance of global ocean currents, sea water chemistry, and cultural issues surrounding sea ice. In the field, students travel to the floe edge with their teacher and an elder to drill holes in the ice and measure its thickness. While at the floe edge, students also measure dissolved oxygen in the sea water at surface and at 10m deep. Students record all data on their own data sheets and are required to turn in a report. Students write a test as part of this curriculum, and interview elders.

Time required:
This unit takes place over a semester of 45 minute classes beginning after the Christmas break, and finishing in late April. During the first week of April there is a two-day sea ice camp at the floe edge to do the investigations.

1. Students understand the importance of sea ice and the floe edge environment to traditional Inuit culture.
    
   
2. Students understand how to measure dissolved oxygen in sea water, and how to use a Winkler to obtain water samples at depth.
    
   
3. Students learn to use a hand held Global Positioning System unit to obtain and plot coordinates on a 1:250 000 scale map.
    
   
4. Students learn to be methodical in collecting data while working hard in harsh conditions.

In this 1 week section, students learn about sea water salinity and its effect on sea water motion.

Students construct hydrometers using TOPS learning systems techniques¹.

Students observe TOPS learning activity "Thin Blue Line"².

1. TOPS Learning Systems

2. Ibid

In this one week section, students learn about the effect of wind, temperature and salinity on the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current, and the importance of those currents to the "global heat pump".

Key concepts:

• Salinity
• Temperature
• Wind
• Gulf Stream and north Atlantic current
• Downwellings

This is the cultural and northern studies portion of the unit, and in my opinion, the most fun part to teach. Relying heavily on video and classroom discussion, this section is also fun for the students. Students report that they had to think harder about this section than anything they have taken in school. I break this unit up and use it as Friday afternoon material over the course of a month or two to give the students a change of pace from pure science.

Key concepts:
Inuit and Qalunaat have traditionally had different attitudes toward the sea ice. Inuit have regarded it as a highway for travel and a platform for hunting sea mammals; while Qalunaat have traditionally regarded it as a danger to shipping and an impediment to their freedom. Inuit need to claim the distinctiveness of their perspective in order to assert their culture in the modern world.

Lesson #1

Time required: ~90 minutes

Introduction:
Briefly discuss the key concept as outlined above. Emphasize that as Inuit, students have a unique responsibility to maintain their culture while at the same time mastering significant portions of the new ways which are becoming dominant in the north. The Inuk in the film Edge of Ice shows a good example of living a traditional lifestyle with the benefit of modern tools and equipment. The Qalunaaq in The Manhattan Odyssey typify the attitude of European and North American explorers and traders.

Body:
Show film Edge of Ice: (55:33) National Film Board of Canada (NFB), In Celebration of Nunavut series, Wildlife Vol. 1. Then discuss in class the questions on the sheet "Inuit and Qalunaaq Attitudes Toward Sea Ice and Life." Certain questions on the sheet pertain to the next film: The Manhattan Odyssey: (7:45) NFB, In Celebration of Nunavut series, Exploiting the North Vol. 4. This short film documents the successful navigation of the North West Passage in 1969 by the U.S. ice breaking tanker Manhattan, and the Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker Sir John A. Macdonald. The attitude of the film stands in stark contrast to the previous film Edge of Ice and underlines the differences between traditional Inuit and Qalunaaq attitudes toward ice and the north in general. In classroom discussion stress the importance of balancing traditional life with modern life; and Inuit traditional knowledge with science. Mention that the Nunavut Land Claims agreement and birthright organizations are set up to ensure that the two lifestyles can coexist in the north. Remind students that they will need to have a first class education if they wish to be "masters in their own house" in the north.

Lesson #2

Time required: ~180 minutes

Introduction:
Briefly discuss what it was like to live in a traditional camp. Ask when students' families moved in from camps to town. Tell students to pay special attention to Joseph Idlout, the star of the film Land of the Long Day. Students should be prepared to talk about what kind of man he was.

Body:
Show the film Land of the Long Day: (37:57) NFB, In Celebration of Nunavut Series, Life on the Land Vol. 3. As the film progresses, point out times when Idlout appears especially in control and successful in his role as camp leader and hunter. Don't overdo it though; just give them enough to set them up to see the film Between Two Worlds: (57:50), NFB In Celebration of Nunavut Series, Life in the Settlements, Vol. 7. This film covers Idlout's life from the time of the making of Land of the Long Day to his ignominious death in 1979. It shows how Idlout, the successful hunter, trader and leader, became a drunken old man exiled in his own land.

Students should be able to discuss the impact of cultural change on Idlout and his family, and discuss the impacts of those same changes on their own families. To aid this discussion, use class input to draw the following graphic on the board:

I stress that students can still see and talk to elders, but that soon the elders will be gone. Figuratively, the ice is breaking up. Youth need to choose what aspects of their traditional culture they will take with them into the future. I caution them not to become like so many people who fail to move as the ice breaks up. Many have been lost in the water of alcohol, drugs, and suicide. Those who succeed and make it to land should take as much of the elders' knowledge as they can, but recognize that their lives will be very different from those of the elders. They must read the changes in their culture the way their great grandparents read the changes in the ice.

Key Concepts:
There are different types of ice which form on water at different times of the year and under different conditions. A knowledge of these ice types can be useful when you are on the land.

Introduction:
Using the Types of Ice Question Sheet, describe the types of ice that students are likely to encounter. Encourage class discussion of where students have seen such ice and at what times of the year.

Body:

• Anchor Ice: An early winter phenomenon. This type of ice forms on clear, cold nights when the temperature falls due to heat loss by radiation. Anchor ice generally rises from the streambed after sunrise, to join the frazil ice running on the surface.
   
  
• Aufeis: It forms when water has flowed over the surface of existing ice. Flooding from upstream on a river or water flowing up from pressure cracks in the ice can make aufeis.
   
  
• Black Ice: The most pure and dense ice and, for that reason, the strongest. It is sometimes called blue ice. "Black ice" is a misnomer since ice is transparent; the colour comes from the dark water upon which the ice floats.
   
  
• Candle Ice: Rotten columnar-grained ice. This is ice in the process of deterioration, a spring phenomenon. Influenced by warming temperatures, the formerly solid ice cover separates into long pencil-like crystals as the intercrystal films melt. These crystals easily slide past each other. Candle ice that is 1 m thick or less might not bear the weight of a person.
   
  
• Frazil Ice: Also called frazil slush. This is ice suspended in the river in the form of small, generally disc-shaped crystals. It is generally formed in fast and turbulent open-water sections of a river. The crystals coalesce and are carried under the permanent ice cover to adhere to its undersurface.
   
  
• Shelf ice: A thick remnant fringe of ice, firmly attached to the riverbank, which may be used as a pathway by the late-winter traveller.
   
  
• Shell ice: A layer of ice that remains in place after the supporting water is, for one reason or another no longer in place. Shell ice has little ability to bear weight. It emits a hollow sound when prodded.
   
  
• White Ice: Usually an ice with a relatively high air content; its strength depends on its density. High-density white ice is opaque and has a strength approaching that of clear black ice. Ice with snow crystals and air bubbles will be weaker³.
   
  
• First Year Ice: Sea ice which has formed in the fall of the current winter. It has salt in brine pockets and appears white.
   
  
• Multi-year Ice: Ice which has survived through a summer and refrozen into the ice pack the following winter. The salt has migrated its way out of this ice and if melted it will taste fresh. Multi-year ice is distinctively turquoise in colour.
   
  
• Land-Fast Ice: The ice which is frozen to the shore and extends out to sea. The edge of this ice, where it gives way to open water and ice floes is called the floe edge.

3. Alford, Montague "Monty": Winter Wise, Travel and Survival in Ice and Snow, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., Surrey BC, 1999, p 18-20

Key Concepts:

• Using GPS and maps to plot Floe edge position.
• Constructing a thickness profile of the sea ice from the floe edge back to shore.
• Using a test kit to measure dissolved oxygen in the sea water.
• Using a Secci disk to measure water turbidity at the floe edge.
• Using a thermometer to measure sea water temperature at the floe edge.
• Listening to elders discuss life at the floe edge.

Introduction:
It is best for students to learn by doing. By travelling to the floe edge with an elder and a teacher, students have the opportunity to do science and learn traditional knowledge about the sea ice and the floe edge environment. The floe edge is a vital ecosystem in the arctic. It is there that the phytoplankton feed the zooplankton which cling to the underside of the ice and make a meal for fish which feed the seals which feed the polar bears. It is at the floe edge that the seals have their pups in spring and where the polar bears grow fat in preparation for the lean summer months. It is at the floe edge that humans have traditionally made their living.

Body:
Prepare for the floe edge trip by training students to use a dissolved oxygen kit to measure dissolved oxygen, Winkler to test water from a depth, and Secci disk to measure turbidity. This takes one to three 45 minute classes. When that is done, organize the overnight trip to the floe edge. Here we go on the last week of March or the first week of April in order to repeat the measurements at the same time each year.

Equipment Required:

Procedure:

1. Drive to floe edge with students and elder. Care must be taken when approaching the floe edge, occasionally slabs of ice break and float away. An entire school group had to be rescued by helicopter in the early 1990s on a trip such as this. Only travel with an experienced guide.
    
   
2. If this is the first year of the exercise, then you must establish a reference line from the floe edge to the shore. To do this, plot the position of the floe edge on the map using the GPS unit, then calculate a bearing along the shortest route to shore. If this is a later year, then get to the point at the floe edge which is along your established reference line.
    
   
3. At the floe edge station, begin by measuring the water temperature at the surface, then take a dissolved oxygen reading using the DO test kit.
    
   
4. After that, drop the secci disk and see when you lose sight of it. Divide that measurement in two and then use the winkler to sample water from that depth. ie. If you lose the disk at 20m then take a sample from 10m. Measure its temperature and DO. After that take a sample from 20m (or where you lost sight of the disk) and measure its temp. and DO. You do this to see the effect of light on phytoplankton activity. More light should result in more photosynthesis and more DO at the surface, with DO diminishing at depth.
    
   
5. With the DO testing done, use the ice auger to drill holes as per the diagram. Drill three holes 30m apart parallel to the floe edge then measure the ice thickness. When everything is complete, pack up and move to station #2.
    
   
6. At station #2 and at each station thereafter, drill holes and measure the ice thickness. Accurately plot the locations of all the stations on the map using the GPS unit.

French, Hugh M. and Slaymaker, Olav eds: Canada's Cold Environments Chapt. 2 by Barry, Roger G.: Canada's Cold Seas p 29-61

Land of the Long Day: (37:57) NFB, In Celebration of Nunavut Series, Life on the Land Vol. 3.

Between Two Worlds: (57:50), NFB In Celebration of Nunavut Series, Life in the Settlements, Vol. 7.

Edge of Ice: (55:33) National Film Board of Canada (NFB), In Celebration of Nunavut series, Wildlife Vol. 1.

The Manhattan Odyssey: (7:45) NFB, In Celebration of Nunavut series, Exploiting the North Vol.