This video highlights the life of a GPS-tracked polar bear named Ursula over several years as she cares for her babies, hunts for food on floating sea ice, travels in order to survive, and fasts for longer periods of time due to melting sea ice.
Students will learn about the immense challenges that polar bears face due to the climate crisis and get to see how this particular polar was able to raise two sets of cubs in the Arctic.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The narrator in this video speaks articulately and slowly, making the video easy to follow.
While this video makes the polar bears' hardships very apparent, it is also hopeful.
Additional Prerequisites
This is an emotional video that highlights a specific polar bear, her cubs, and the difficulties that she faces, so prepare to provide students with opportunities to share their emotional reactions to this content.
Differentiation
Show students on a map where Ursula traveled and have them discuss in groups why this movement was necessary.
Provide students with opportunities to explore other resources from Polar Bears International including worksheets, additional videos, and a polar bear tracker.
Have students watch this short video about how climate change is impacting the Adélie penguin population in Antarctica and compare these impacts to the challenges faced by polar bears.
In a social studies class, consider showing students environmental murals such as "Footprint", "The Last Winter", and "On the Brink" and ask students to discuss human responsibility for wildlife.
Other resources on this topic include this mini-poster and fact sheet about polar bears and this animated video which provides a simple introduction to climate change.
Scientist Notes
This is a 7:18 minutes video that shows the Ursula polar bear life and history. She had a GPS collar and the scientist followed her for several years until she lost her collar. The track was important to understand about the Polar Bear habits, movement and territory. They followed several Polar bears and they can use all information overtime to understand and create the Polar Bear habit/ movements. Human actions contribute to the Polar bear's declining population from the last few years. Climate change will be reducing the Polar bear population and also every life on the Earth. The importance of starting to use renewable energy is also highlighted. The sources are included in the video description. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-5 Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.6.6-8 Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.
D4.7.9-12 Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
