Grade Level/Discipline
Elementary School/Science/Math with extensions that could support fully integrated thematic study.

National Standards

Students should develop abilities to do scientific inquiry.
Ask a question about events in the environment.
Plan and conduct a simple investigation.
Employ simple equipment and tools to gather and extend the senses.
Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
Communicate investigations and explanations
Develop an understanding about scientific inquiry.

Students should develop an understanding of the properties of objects and materials.
Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react to other substances.
Properties can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers.
Materials can exist in different states - solid, liquid, gas. Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.

Students should develop an understanding of properties of earth materials.
Earth materials are solid rock and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties.

Pre-activity set-up
Assemble the materials, and gather fresh water from a stream, lake, pond, or river if one is available and you can't walk there with the students for collection.

Materials
Thermometer(s), scale(s), microscope(s) or slides of ice crystals to view, clear plastic containers - small (i.e. medicine cups), access to a cold room or outside cold temperatures in winter, or a freezer, water, map of Antarctica.

Time Frame
One period for the "Ice, Ice, Ice" activity - 45 minutes

One period total (over time) for the first investigation (freezing the water) - set up, 30 minutes, check in and record 3 times, follow-up discussion - one hour

One period total (over time) for the second investigation,(melting the ice).

Internet site research following Bancroft/Arnesen - variable

Class discussions - variable

Engagement and Exploration (Student Inquiry Activity
Ask the students what they know about ice. Put their statements on a large piece of chart paper for all to see. Log on to the internet at http://www.yourexpedition.com http://www.yourexpedition.com and introduce the students to the Bancroft Arnesen Trans-Antarctic Expedition. In the fourth grade curriculum section, log on to the section called "Ice, Ice, Ice" and follow the procedure from there.
At the conclusion of this activity, ask the students if they want to add anything to the chart about ice. Prompts could include: Are there different kinds of ice? What does ice look like? What color is ice? What is the temperature of ice? What is the texture of ice, the taste of ice? What does ice look like under a microscope?
Show, on a map of Antarctica, the route of the explorers and discuss how much of the route is glacial ice.
Explain that the class is going to find out about the properties (characteristics) of ice. Divide the class into teams of 2 or 3. Hand out the lab sheets, one per group. Read the directions together.
Have students share what they think the word hypothesis means. Explain it in simple terms if they have difficulty. A hypothesis is an educated guess, what you think will happen in an investigation.
Have students then follow the procedure given on the lab sheet. The students will be freezing an amount of water, observing and recording the changes that occur over time during the freezing process. When the procedure has been followed to the section where the water is placed in a freezer, have the students answer the following questions on their lab sheets to add to their science journals (any type of notebook that is used to write ideas and questions.)

What will the water look like in one/half hour? two hours? overnight? (List the following properties: texture, color, shape, size.)
How will the water feel? (List the following properties: temperature and texture - hard, soft, bumpy, rough.)
What will the "water" weigh?
How will the "water" taste?
Draw what a sliver of the "water" might look like under a microscope.

Share, as a class, the journal entries and put predictions on the chart paper. Continue to follow the protocol on the lab sheet. When the investigation is complete, compare the results to the class predictions on the chart paper. Discuss what predictions were pretty much right on and any surprises the students encountered. At the close of the discussion, decide on a list of properties of ice about which the whole class agrees.

Lab Sheet

Team Name___________________________________________

Ice

Hypothesis Water will change to a frozen state called ice if it is put in temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius for a length of time.

Procedure Take a medicine cup (or other small plastic container) and fill to within one quarter inch of the top with water from a pond (stream, river, fresh water lake.) Weigh the container and the water. Note the weight in your journal. Carefully place the filled container into the freezer. Remove after one half hour, two hours, and the next day. Each time the container is removed, complete the "observation" sections.

Observations (Observations should include measuring the level of the water or ice from the top of the container (remember it started 1/4 inch from the top), and looking at a section under a microscope (or viewing an already prepared slide of ice crystals)in addition to listing the other properties such as feeling, tasting, and looking.)

One half hour: Write in the following predictions:

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view



Take the sample out of the freezer and making the following observations. Indicate which observations came as a surprise by placing a * before front it.

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view

Two hours: Write in the following predictions:

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view



Take the sample out of the freezer and making the following observations. Indicate which observations came as a surprise by placing a * before front it.

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view

The next day: Write in the following predictions:

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view



Take the sample out of the freezer and making the following observations. Indicate which observations came as a surprise by placing a * before front it.

temperature ________________

color ________________

distance from the rim ________________

weight _____________

texture _____________

microscopic view

Conclusion Have the students write the conclusions in their journals. The conclusion should quantify the changes between water and ice and the agreed upon properties of fresh water ice.


Now that the class has had an experience with the investigative model and some of the scientific vocabulary in inquiry science, have the teams write their own hypotheses conjecturing how much ice they think it will take to create one cup(8oz.) of drinking water for Bancroft and Arnesen on the glacier. (The students should reflect on the observation that as the water froze, it expanded. Have them look at their data to see how much it expanded so they can support a reasonable hypothesis.)

Extensions: How many cups of water do Ann and Liv need daily? How much ice do they need to melt to meet those requirements? Which form of ice melts faster, a solid chunk or shards?

Using the lab sheet below, have half the class use ice chunks for the experiment, and the other half use crushed ice.
Melt the ice at room temperature.
Measure the ice to be melted by weighing it.

Lab Sheet

Team Name____________

Ice to Water

Hypothesis (It will take ___________ounces/pounds of ice chunks or crushed ice to create an eight ounce glass of water.)
______________________________________________________________________

Procedure Weigh the ice chunks or crushed ice, depending upon the group you are in. Melt this amount. If it is not enough, melt more. Be sure to measure ahead of time and add that amount to the first effort. If it is too much, try again using less.

Observations Write what happened step by step.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Conclusion How much ice will Bancroft and Armesen need to melt to get one cup of water? eight cups for the entire day of minimum drinking water? Is it more efficient to use chunk ice or crushed ice? Write your conclusions in your journals.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Explanation (Discussing)
How is water like ice? How is it different? If you were crossing Antarctica, how would you prepare for the need to take in the eight glasses of water recommended as a daily minimum? How might this need impact a trans-Antarctic trek? In journals add an entry answering these questions and then discuss them as a group. Do this and write the conclusions on the chart paper. As a group discuss how the nature of ice might affect preparations for the trip Bancroft and Arnesen are undertaking.

Elaboration (Polar Applications)
Have the students e-mail Bancroft and Arnesen and ask where they get their drinking, cooking, and bathing water. Have the students share the experiments they just conducted. Have them ask any questions that arose from their investigations. (Scientists inevitably end up with new questions as some questions are answered by investigation.)

Exchange (Students Draw Conclusions)
In their journals students write what preparations would be necessary if they were to take a long journey in a region where the surface was glacial ice. These conclusions are shared as a class. Continue to follow the Bancroft Arnesen trek and note occurrences where the nature of glacial ice impacts the journey.

Evaluation (Assessing Student Performance)
The teacher can use the lab sheets and the student journals as well as parcticipation in class discussions to assess the level of engagement and understanding of the students. Rubrics could address specific skills to assess in both math and science areas and could be filled out by the student and the teacher together.

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