Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web

In this virtual workshop, we will review strategies for how to facilitate the Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web Data Puzzle in your middle and high school science classrooms. Participants will engage with the teaching materials (teacher guide, slide deck, student worksheet, and answer key) from both the teacher and student perspective and upon completion, be prepared to implement the Data Puzzle in their classroom.

Participants seeking a 3-hour PD certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder for completing the Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web virtual PD should submit their answers to the questions/tasks below using this Google Form. 

Please email jonathan.griffith@colorado.edu when you have submitted your Form.

Satellite observations coupled with ecosystem models suggest that the decline in Arctic sea ice (caused by rising global temperatures) has led to an increase in ocean algae across the region and a decline in sea ice algae in parts of the Arctic. To predict how shifts at the base of the Arctic food web may affect other organisms, scientists seek to better understand Arctic feeding relationships by studying fat molecules. Scientists have discovered that ocean and sea ice algae make different types of carbon-based fats. Why does this matter? Well, these carbon-based fats are transferred to animals when algae are eaten, all the way up to polar bears and bowhead whales. Scientists have been able to measure the amount and type (ocean algae vs. sea ice algae) of carbon-based fat in Arctic animals to determine whether the animal's diet is more dependent upon ocean algae or sea ice algae.

Arctic food web showing different feeding relationships amongst Arctic organisms.

The Data Puzzle includes three main components, it is important to understand the differences between the materials. BEFORE you dive into the virtual workshop, please complete the following tasks:

• Open the teacher guide. Note that the teacher provides some short facilitation tips and some additional materials you can use to differentiate the curriculum.
• Flip through the slide deck. Note that the opening scenario is only on the slides, not on the student worksheet. 
• Print the student worksheet. Note that the student worksheet has the background reading and space for students’ models.  

Now that you understand the goal of the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice and have heard some tips about how to facilitate the opening scenario, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by reflecting on the opening scenario and “Stop and Think” questions below.

After bringing out student resources about the opening scenario, it’s important to help students make connections between the opening scenario and the science investigation they are about to engage with in the Data Puzzle. Embedded in the slide deck are specific discussion prompts to help students make these connections and a slide (see below) that introduces the ecologists  featured in the Data Puzzle who are studying feeding relationships in the Arctic to determine how the decline in Arctic sea ice might impact the Arctic food web.

*Here's the link to the video referenced in the slide pictured above (left). Watch from 1:00-2:45

It's time to learn more about the featured scientists’ research by engaging with the interactive reading as part of the next practice, “Identifying Important Science Ideas."

Now that you understand the goal of the Identifying Important Science Ideas practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Use the following prompts to facilitate a whole class discussion related to the figure below (also included in the Puzzle Plot text) that shows how carbon-based fats from sea ice algae and ocean algae can be transferred through the Arctic food web.

• What do the small circles and triangles represent?
• Based on the figure, do you think copepods eat more ocean algae or sea ice algae? 
• Based on the figure, do you think bowhead whales eat more copepods or amphipods?
• Do you think bowhead whales are more dependent upon ocean algae or sea ice algae? How do you know?

It's time to test your prediction for the investigative question by analyzing and interpreting a dataset collected by the featured scientist(s) as part of the “Supporting Ongoing Changes In Thinking" practice.

Now that you understand the goal of the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Analyzing data is a challenging task for many students, especially when they have not collected the dataset themselves.  What does a point represent? What do the axes mean? It’s important for students to be able to answer these and other questions BEFORE they are asked to identify patterns in a dataset. 

 The dataset above shows the relative amount and type (ocean vs. sea ice algae) of carbon-based fats present in various Arctic organisms.

We recommend creating a list of Back Pocket Questions (BPQ) that you could use as you move from table to table to help students focus on the task, recall earlier class discussions about a particular science idea, or to challenge students to connect any patterns they’ve identified back to the investigative question. See this practice document (page #4) for example BPQs.

Now that you understand the goal of the Constructing Evidence-Based Explanations practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

After gathering evidence (interactive reading and carbon-based fats data interpretation), it’s time for students to construct a final model to explain the investigative question, “How might the decline in sea ice affect Arctic organisms large and small?” But what even is a model? If your students have not constructed a model in your classroom, use the slide deck to introduce the concept of a scientific model and to facilitate a discussion around what should be included in a model and what a model should look like.

• Slide Deck link

After students construct their final models for the investigative question, we challenge students to apply these new science ideas to new situations (e.g., social justice issues, climate solutions, or related phenomena) through a “Digging Deeper” question(s). We encourage you, the facilitator, to use these questions as is or adapt them to connect to topics you’ve previously covered in class or other local phenomena.

Review the “Additional Teacher Materials and Extensions” section on the last page of the teacher guide for more information about the work presented in the Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web Data Puzzle and extension materials including an ArcGIS StoryMap and other data visualizations from NASA.

The Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web Data Puzzle is NOT intended to be an activity that is distributed to the student to be completed as homework. Instead, it is meant to be a collaborative effort by the teacher and students to make sense of new science phenomena. Before implementing the Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web Data Puzzle in your classroom it’s important to review all of the materials available to you (teacher guide, answer key, slide deck) and to be prepared to facilitate lots of small group and whole class discussions!