Sea-Level Rise – Arctic vs. Antarctic Sea Ice Melt
Activity link: https://encounteredu.com/take-action/sea-level-rise-investigation
Grades: 5+
Duration: 10 minutes (2-hour wait time)
Materials:
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- 2 full cans of food
- 2 clear containers (ideally slightly wider and taller than the cans)
- ice
- black sharpie
OSO alignment: Sea level rise will be a concept that is covered in the 2023-24 OSO curriculum update. This activity demonstrates how the melting of sea ice over a land mass (Antarctica) versus a frozen sea (Arctic) results in different sea-level rise scenarios.
NGSS performance expectations: 5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.