Glacier Institute 2008

Slide show of our week

2008-09-17T17:00:00.001-07:00

The best part of all!

2008-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hike to Grinnell Glacier.

Tuesday at Glacier National Park

2008-07-31T14:25:00.001-07:00

Ranger Matt from the National Park Service guided our hike to Avalanche Lake in the afternoon. Beautiful, lush vegetation, lots of flowers, and a glacier blue lake at the top, with waterfalls pouring in from everywhere.

See the day's notes.
Big ideas:
Explanations of ice coring processes to see atmospheric records over many years, including images of the ice crystals. Lunchtime lesson for our students - BINGO. More evidence that CO2 in atmosphere is growing at an alarming rate!

Monday at Glacier National Park

2008-07-31T14:14:00.001-07:00

This day included lessons near and wading in the Flathead River. We also looked for larvae on the river rocks and saw a demo of "fish shocking".

See the notes from monday.
Big idea: the river is much more than the water we see in the channel. There are streams of water under the ground! Human impact on a river can be tracked. Introduction of non-native fish species has caused problems.

Sunday at Glacier National Park

2008-07-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ann & I arrived late saturday night, so had all morning to spend in the park. We went to Apgar village and Lake McDonald on the bike path - a short hike from the Glacier Institute. Then hiked the Apgar Fire Tower Lookout trail - about 3.5 miles, steep, rising above Apgar Village. The views at the top were spectacular! In late afternoon we met the rest of the week's participants and our facilitators, Scott Battaion and Zach Smith from the Wright Center for Education at Tufts University in Boston.

Notes from our first session are here.
Big ideas: history of climate change from the late 1800's shows carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is rising at an alarming rate. Carbon dioxide & earth's temperature are correlated. Global warming refers to "people induced" climate change.

Ann & Kim enjoying time away from school

2008-07-12T09:44:00.000-07:00