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Fire and Ice STEM Kit

Explore how black carbon from prehistoric wildfires is preserved in glacial ice!

In this kit, students use a model of a glacier to learn how ice is accumulated over time and how glaciologists use volcanic ash to help verify the counting of annual layers. A 1/190th scale model of an ice core taken from a glacier in Denali National Park is run through a mock soot photometer to measure the variation of black carbon resulting from wildfires. Students learn how to interpret this authentic data between the years of 700 and 2000 to determine just how unusual recent fire activity in western North America has been.

Science and Engineering Practices include: 1) developing and using models; 2) analyzing and interpreting data; 3) using mathematics and computational thinking; 4) obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

Crosscutting Concepts include: 1) patterns; 2) cause and effect; 3) scale, proportion, and quantity; 4) systems and system models; 5) structure and function; 6) stability and function

Class Requirements

  • 6th grade and up
  • Moderate teacher preparation
  • One to two class periods
  • 30 students or less working in pairs
  • Science notebooks

Fire and Ice STEM Kit Resources

Next Generation Science Standards: Disciplinary Core Ideas

  • MS-ESS2.A: Earth’s Materials and Systems The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future.
  • MS-ESS2.D: Weather and Climate Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
  • MS-ESS3.B Natural Hazards Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region, combined with an understanding of related geologic forces, can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events.
  • MS-ESS3.D Global Climate Change Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming).
  • HS-ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems The geological record shows that changes to global and regional climate can be caused by interactions among changes in the sun’s energy output or Earth’s orbit, tectonic events, ocean circulation, volcanic activity, glaciers, vegetation, and human activities. These changes can occur on a variety of timescales from sudden (e.g., volcanic ash clouds) to intermediate (ice ages) to very long-term tectonic cycles.
  • HS-ESS2.D Weather and Climate Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
  • HS-ESS2.E Biogeology The many dynamic and delicate feedbacks between the biosphere and other Earth systems cause a continual co-evolution of Earth’s surface and the life that exists on it.
  • HS-ESS2.D: Weather and Climate Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
  • HS-ESS3.D: Global Climate Change Through computer simulation and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.

Borrowing Fire and Ice STEM Kits

There is no charge to educators who wish to borrow any of our STEM kits. We appreciate applications be submitted at least 2 weeks in advance of the desired use date. The loan application forms require you to confirm your email address before it will be sent to the EOC – so once you click submit, check your email (including the junk folder)! You should also get a copy of the form for your records via email, if you don’t, please contact Jordan Conley (jordan.conley@colostate.edu).