This interactive graph shows the size of Arctic and Antarctic ice cover every year going back to 1978.
Users can turn on and off plot lines for individual years, making it easy to compare the differences in the amount of ice in different years.
Teaching Tips
Positives
These graphs show how the extent of sea ice changes over a year due to the seasons and, more importantly, how the amount of sea ice, particularly in the Arctic, has decreased over time.
Students can click on the data lines to select a specific date, and the map below the graph will provide a visual depiction of the extent of sea ice on that date.
Students can switch between Northern and Southern Hemispheres by clicking "switch hemispheres" in the top righthand corner of the screen.
Additional Prerequisites
The link to the NCEP Climate Forecast System does not work.
The different plot lines can be turned on and off by clicking the individual years below the graph.
Differentiation
Math or science classes could have students calculate the percentage of change in sea ice extent between the same date in two different years.
Earth science classes could discuss what has caused the decrease in the amount of ice since the 1970s and what can be done to stop the damage.
There is no contradiction in the resource. This resource is recommended.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
MS-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-6 Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
