The Arctic Triptych A unit on data analysis

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The Arctic Triptych

A unit on data analysis

Objectives:

1. Understand, analyze, and create graphic organizers, line graphs, and charts.

2. Recognize probability of events.

3. Use percentages and fractions to understand and to convey data.

4. Use graphic representations to organize information and to share it.

Activities:

1. Learn about global warming and sea ice.

2. Organize information about the Marine Life Census.

3. Create graphic representations of Arctic food chains and webs.

4. Read and compare folktales about arctic animals.

This unit uses the effects of global warming on animals of the arctic as a theme.

Find hands-on activities and additional resources at www.MyFreshPlans.com

• Wolf Lesson Plans

• East of the Sun and West of the Moon

• Ocean Habitats Lesson Plans

• Under the Sea Classroom Themes

• Graphic Organizers

• Creative Math for Data Analysis

• Green Classrooms

• Global Warming Lesson Plans

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The Arctic Triptych

Wolves, Seals, and Polar Bears

Among the animals of the Arctic are three that have been especially interesting to people. They show up in our folklore, art, and history. All three of them are being affected by the changes in our climate.

When these animals have less to eat, less opportunity to hunt, and less space for their families, their lives are threatened. Let’s examine the data and learn more about these creatures.

The Wolf

Wolves are not threatened directly by climate change; however, they eat rabbits and muskoxen.

The populations of these animals are being reduced by the changes in their habitats, so the arctic wolf is having trouble getting enough to eat.

The Polar Bear

Polar bears hunt on sea ice, the frozen part of the ocean. Sea ice is melting, though, as the world gets hotter. Polar bears have less opportunity to hunt, and have to swim further in more dangerous conditions. In recent years, polar bears have gotten smaller, on average, and are having fewer cubs than they did in the 20th century.

The Seal

Seals have babies on sea ice. As the sea ice melts,

the seals have less space in which to have their

babies. Seals eat fish. As the water gets warmer,

there is less plankton for fish to eat, and therefore

fewer fish for the seals to eat.

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The Arctic Triptych

Working with Data #1

This chart shows the amount of ice on the sea from 1870 to 2000. It is measured in million square

kilometers. The different lines show the different seasons. The gray section is before satellites, so that information might be less accurate than the later information.

Wikimedia file, used under Creative Commons license

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Understand:

1. What is the largest amount of sea ice? ______________________________________________________________

2. When was the largest amount recorded? ___________________________________________________________

3. What is the smallest amount of sea ice and when was it recorded? _______________________________________

Calculate:

1. Compare the largest amount and the smallest amount. Express these two numbers as a ratio.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

2. The smallest amount of sea ice is ______% of the largest amount.

3. Compare the largest and smallest amounts in each season, and express the numbers as percentages.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Compare the levels of sea ice at the end of the 20th century with the levels at the beginning of the 20th century.

Express the change as a fraction and as a percentage. __________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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The Arctic Triptych

Working with Data #2

Collect:

For 10 years, the Marine Census Project has been counting all the creatures in the sea.

Scientists from 80 different countries are collaborating on this project.

Here is a collection of facts about this project:

• About 230,000 different species have been identified.

• About 1.9 million species of plants and animals have been identified on the planet earth.

• 17,650 different species of deep sea creatures have been found.

• 19% of the sea creatures are crustaceans.

• 17% are mollusks, like squid.

• 12% are fish or sharks.

• 10% are one-celled creatures.

• 10% are algae.

• 10% are worms.

• 5% are cnidaria, like sea anemones and jellyfish.

• 3% are echinodermata, like starfish.

• 3% are sponges.

• 2% are moss animals.

• 1% are sea squirts.

• The number of species of mammals identified is 5,490. About 1,100 of them are bats.

• There are about 10,000 species of birds and about the same number of reptiles.

• About one million species of insects have been identified.

• 102,248 species of spiders and scorpions have been identified.

Understand:

1. Are there more species on land or in the ocean? __________________

_____________________________

2. Are there more arthropods, or more mammals in the world?

_____________________________

3. Are there more arthropods, or more fish in the world?

_____________________________

Calculate:

1. Counting the sea and land creatures, how many of the animals counted are arthropods?

_____________________________

2. What percentage of all the species identified are arthropods?

_____________________________

3. What percentage of the identified species live in the ocean?

_____________________________

Share:

1. Choose a group of facts that you find interesting and make a chart or graph showing the information.

_____________________________

2. A chart or graph is supposed to make information easier to understand. Does yours do this?

_____________________________

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The Arctic Triptych

Working with Data #3

This chart shows the food web in an Arctic ocean habitat.

Understand:

1. The polar bear eats the _____________.

2. The __________ eats the fish.

3. The fish eat the _____________ and the _____________.

4. The remains of dead animals and the wastes from the animals create organic deposits.

5. The crustaceans eat the _______________.

6. The _________ supplies energy for the whole food web.

Share:

Both polar bears and seals live on the sea ice. Scientists aren’t sure what will happen to this food web if the sea ice continues to get smaller, but they use the data they have to think about probabilities: what might happen. Write a paragraph

predicting what you think might happen by 2100 if sea ice melts at the same rate as in the 20th century. Draw a new food web diagram to show the changes you predict.

___________________________________________________

Analyze:

1. Less sea ice would probably mean fewer _______________.

2. Fewer polar bears could mean more ______________.

3. Fewer polar bears could also mean less _____________.

4. More seals could mean fewer________________.

5. Fewer fish could mean more __________________.

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East of the Sun and West of the Moon

A folktale from Norway

Once upon a time there lived a poor peasant who was very poor, but happy with his family. One night, a big white bear came to the door and asked to marry his youngest daughter. “If you let me marry her,“ the bear said, “I’ll make you rich and you’ll never worry about feeding your family.”

“I cannot let my daughter marry a bear!” exclaimed the peasant.

But his daughter decided that she would go, and she climbed on the white bear’s back and traveled away with him to a great castle.

The girl was alone in the grand castle all day, but in the evening someone came to talk with her. It was dark, and she couldn’t see him, but they had many fine conversations, and she grew to love him. He told her that he loved her, too, and that they would be married some day, but that she must never try to look at him.

She couldn’t resist, though. One night she lighted a candle and saw that there was a handsome prince asleep in the room with her. He was so handsome that she decided to kiss him. As she leaned over to kiss him, three drops of wax fell from the candle onto his shirt.

The handsome prince woke and jumped up. “What have you done?” he cried. “If only you had obeyed me, I would have been set free! Now I must go and marry the Troll Princess instead of you.”

The prince told the girl that he had been cursed by a troll to live as a white bear in the daytime and take on his true form only at night. If he could have found a girl to love him obediently as he was for a year, he would have been free of the curse. Since he had not been able to find such a girl, he would have to live as a bear forever, and to marry the Troll Princess.

The girl cried, but there was nothing to be done. The prince had to go straightaway to the trolls’ castle, east of the sun and west of the moon.

When the girl finished crying, she dried her eyes and set out after the prince. She went to the house of the East Wind, and asked him to take her to the castle of the trolls.

The prince was glad to see her. “Tomorrow is to be my wedding day,” he said, “but I will tell the Troll Princess that she must wash the drops of wax out of my shirt first.”

The more the troll washed, the dirtier the shirt became. “I can’t marry you!” said the prince.

“I will only marry a girl who can wash my shirt clean.”

At this, the girl came up and washed his shirt as white as snow. The Troll Princess was so angry that she exploded, and the prince and the girl married and lived happily ever after.

“I cannot,” said the East Wind, “but if you’ll get on my back, I’ll take you to my brother, the West Wind.” They went to the house of the West Wind, then to the house of the South Wind, and finally to the home of the North Wind, who took the girl to the castle of the trolls.

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In the Orkneys there lived a fisherman who had no wife. One day he went down to the sea to fish and saw the seal people, or selkies, lying on the rocks. They had taken off their sealskins and looked like humans, sunning themselves on the rocks.

When they saw the fisherman, the seal people grabbed their sealskins and put them back on. They slipped back into the water and swam away, frolicking as seals in the sun-dappled sea.

The fisherman had caught up one of the skins, though, and one of the selkies stayed behind on the rocks. She was a beautiful woman, and he fell in love with her. He knew that selkies and humans could marry. So long as the selkie couldn’t find her sealskin, she could never return to the sea, so the fisherman hid her skin to keep her near him.

The fisherman and the selkie married and lived together happily. The years passed, and they had children. The selkie was a good wife, but sometimes she would look out at the sea, longing to go back to live in the ocean with the seal people.

The selkie asked the fisherman to give her back her sealskin so she could return to the sea. She promised she would come back to him after she visited her family, but the fisherman sadly said no, and kept the sealskin hidden. He feared that the selkie would stay with the seal people and he would be alone again.

One day the selkie took her youngest child down to the shore while the fisherman was away fishing. She looked under all the rocks, searching for her sealskin.

“What are you looking for, Mother?” asked the child.

“Och,” said the selkie, “I’m looking for a fine sealskin to make a coat for you.”

“There’s a sealskin hidden in the cupboard above the bed,” said the child.

The selkie wife ran back to the house, put on her sealskin, and slipped away into the sea to visit her family.

The fisherman was right: the selkie never came back to him. But sometimes a very pretty seal came up close to his boat and smiled at him. He always threw a fish to her.

He thought she looked sad before she swam away.

He never forgot his selkie wife.

The Selkie Wife

A folktale from the Orkney Islands

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Werewolves, Wereseals, and Werebears?

We all know about werewolves:

men who turn into wolves when the moon is full. Did you know there are also stories about humans who turned into seals and polar bears? Read the stories and then answer the questions below.

Understand:

1. Werewolves are people who turn into _______________________.

2. Selkies are ______________ who turn into people.

3. The prince is a ______________ at night and a _____________ in the daytime.

4. Werewolves change into wolves when _____________________________.

5. Selkies must ____________________________________ to become people.

6. The prince became an animal because ______________________________.

7. Selkies __________________________________________ people.

8. Werewolves ________________________________________people.

Share:

Make a Venn diagram like the one above on poster board. Write the things that are true only of one creature in the outer section. Write the things shared by two creatures in the space they share. Write the things all three share in the center section. Add as many more statements as you can.

Enchanted Prince Werewolves

Write the things true of all three creatures here.

Write things that are only true about selkies here.

Write things that are true about both selkies

and werewolves here.