Melting Icebergs

Being a desert baby, I have to admit I did not think much about melting polar ice caps.  It's always hot over here, and there's no big bodies of water.  So if all of a sudden melting ice caps give me an ocean in my backyard, I won't complain.  In all seriousness, however, the repercussions due to the rapid melting of polar ice caps are no joke.   Aside, from the rise in sea level, there is also the rise in global temperature to think about.  These two events together, would change many habitats around the world, and possibly create the extinction of many animals and plants.  Thinking about my own desert habitat, if I did end up with an ocean in my backyard, the demise of all that beautiful desert flora and fauna I enjoy seeing every day would cease to exist.  Therefore the loss of animals, and the hardships many people would have to endure at the change in climate and land, is not worth my backyard ocean.  Alas, I will enjoy my beautiful view of the mountains instead.  I don't know how to swim anyway.

Week 2 Application

This week I chose to do the lesson plan on rapid changes to the Earth's surface.  Although I have created 5E lesson plans before and usually try to implement most of the E's in my lesson plans, I realized that I could do more in my lesson planning to really engage the students.  It is not difficult to find a small experiment, do an observation or to view a video that will entice students' natural curiosity.  It might take a little bit more time to find and plan these things but it seems worth it.  I will try it with the next lesson plan I create for my own classroom.  I will keep you posted on how much more (or less) successful it is!

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone has enjoyed a restful holiday season!