PolarPASS Module 1: Exploring the Glacier Basin System

This Module consists of five Units, walking students through an overview of the glacier basin system, exploring glacier mass balance, albedo, and surface melt, and looking inside and underneath the glacier. The Units also cover the transition from the glacier margin to land and system responses to climate change.

Module Goals

Based on specific Driving Questions for each Unit, after completing all 5 Units student will be able to:

Develop a sense of place (e.g., spatial, visual, & emotional) for the Kangerlussuaq glacier basin system.
Recognize the characteristics of the glacier surface and the processes that shape it in different seasons.
Map the movement of water through and underneath the glacier system.
Evaluate seasonal change in a glacier basin system and be able to predict glacier behavior (speed, englacial/subglacial evolution) throughout a year.
Determine how seasonal changes in temperature influence the overall hydrology of a glacier basin system.
Articulate the changes that occur over decadal timescales in a glacier basin system.

Exploring the Glacier Basin System with glacier background

Resource Type

Unit

Topics

University/College

Instructional Time

2-3 weeks (5 units)

Published Date

December 1, 2023

Contact

Goals Header

What Students Will Do

Students use authentic scientific data to explore a Greenland glacier system. Students dive into questions about timescales, seasonal and year-to-year change, and interconnected Earth system element.
Students develop a sense of place via interactive environments, field images, maps, geospatial data, and videos.
Interactive and diverse activities support students in developing stronger inquiry-based learning skills and challenge students to ask and investigate questions about climate, ice, and the landscapes of our planet.
Students gain geospatial analysis skills through spatial and temporal exercises that utilize Greenland specific datasets in QGIS

Teaching Materials

Description

Unit 1: Overview of the Glacier Basin System: Students are introduced to the geography of the Arctic and Greenland, and use interactive exercises to identify the fjord-to-glacier landscape features they might encounter in a polar glacier basin system.
Unit 2: Glacier Mass Balance, Albedo, and Surface Melt: Using imagery, interactive online data, and GIS activities, students learn about the changing seasonal character of the ice sheet surface, and what these changes mean for the creation of surface melt, the albedo (reflectivity) of the ice surface, and implications for gaining or losing ice mass.
Unit 3 : A Look Inside and Underneath the Glacier: This unit explores the important role of ice melt in the glacier basin system. Beginning at the ice sheet surface and then traveling through and underneath the ice, students learn about seasonal meltwater patterns and their connections to ice sheet motion and terrestrial river discharge.
Unit 4: Transition from Glacier Margin to Land: The presence of a glacier in a basin system has substantial influence on terrestrial hydrology, including river discharge. This unit explores the differences between glaciated and unglaciated basins.
Unit 5: System Response to Climate Change: In this unit, students transition to considering how a glacier basin system changes over multiple decades. Bringing together weather, albedo, melt, and ice sheet surface elevation data, students assess how and why this Greenland glacier basin system has changed under contemporary climate change.

Download a ZIP file of this module

Interactive Environments for Module 1