360Storylines—Rising Sea Levels, 1-Year Access

Product Details

A 360Storyline is a collection of experiments that together let students engage in science in an authentic manner through the use of relevant phenomena. Each experiment in a 360Storyline builds on things learned in the preceding experiments until students develop a final, working explanation or model of the phenomenon. Every lab in any 360Storyline is completely editable and supported by videos and simulations. 

Includes:

• Access to digital content for 1 year
• Lab supplies for each experiment for a single class of 30 students

Rising Sea Levels
Lead students to a written understanding/working model of how climate change contributes to rising sea levels. Greenland and Antarctica are covered with massive ice sheets. Due to climate change, ice sheets are melting and the water is running off into the ocean, thus adding to the total volume of water in the ocean. In addition to melting ice sheets, glaciers are also melting. Glaciers have a natural cycle during the summer, naturally melting, and winter snowfall balances the summer melt. In recent times, due to climate change, the summer melt has increased and winter snowfall has decreased, resulting in more water running off into the ocean.

What Students Do

Lab 1—Feedback and Climate Change
Students carry out an investigation to observe the connection between the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the reduction in both sea ice and glacial ice. Using a direct heat source, students compare the amount of ice melted as temperature increases in an experimental bottle and a control bottle. An antacid effervescent tablet is added to the experimental bottle to release additional carbon dioxide in the experimental bottle.

Lab 2—Albedo and Composition of Earth’s Surface
Students carry out an investigation to determine how albedo and specific heat influence how fast temperature change occurs in natural substances by measuring the temperature change in several samples placed under a heat lamp.

Lab 3—How Melting Ice Affects Sea Level
Students carry out an investigation to determine how melting sea ice and melting glaciers affect sea level. They determine the impact by comparing the results of two experimental setups.

About 360Storylines

A 360Storyline is a collection of experiments that together let students engage in science in an authentic manner through the use of relevant phenomena. Each experiment in a 360Storyline builds on things learned in the preceding experiments until students develop a final, working explanation or model of the phenomenon. Every lab in any 360Storyline is completely editable and supported by videos and simulations. 

Students must drive the learning forward by developing procedures and asking questions. Each storyline is supported by editable documents that force students to think about how the data they collect relate to an individual experiment’s investigative phenomenon and how the data they collect in a series of labs relate to a broader, anchoring phenomenon.