Curated OER
Ice Core Clues
Students create a PowerPoint presentation on the information they research about the ice cores and what they tell us about Earth's past. In this ice core lesson plan, students research radioactivity, air pollution, sodium, snowfall...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: What's Up With the Weather: Graphs
Examine this graph from FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" Web site to see dramatic increases in three greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Earth Exploration Toolbox: Cool Cores Capture Climate Change
A collection of activities which provide background for educators and learners on the role of sediment cores in revealing the climate change history of Earth.
Encyclopedia of Earth
Encyclopedia of Earth: Climate Change: Ice Cores and History of Climate Change
Article describing research done in the West Antarctica, where ice cores were removed to a depth of two miles, providing information on climate change over the last one hundred thousand years. (Date published: Feb. 2, 2011)
BBC
Bbc News: An Animated Journey Through the Earth's Climate History
A narrated journey through the last 800,000 years of the Earth's climate, accompanied by images and graphs. A text-only version is also available. (Published 3 Dec. 2009)
Ohio State University
Byrd Polar Research Center: Ice Core Paleoclimatology Research Group
This site explains the research of the Ice Core Paleoclimatology Group. See how they are coring ice samples all around the world to help better understand Earth's changing climate. Provides links to teaching materials.
Other
Univ. Of Copenhagen: Centre for Ice and Climate: Preserved Fossil Dna in the Ice
Discusses how fossil DNA data that is collected from ice cores is used by scientists to reconstruct the composition of past ecosystems and their biodiversity, as well as climates. There is a great deal of other information on the website...
National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation: Ice Core Facility (Nsf Icf): About Ice Cores
A fantastic resource for learning about how ice cores are collected, the information we can learn from them about Earth's climate history, the types of research being done with them, and how they are stored. Includes lots of videos.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2: A Record of Climate Change
Using images and graphs, this interactive resource illustrates scientists' efforts to study Earth's climatic history for the last 250,000 years by drilling into the Greenland Ice Sheet and examining ice cores. Includes background reading...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Stories in the Ice
Take a journey back through time, using ice cores to learn about Earth's climatic history, including evidence of global warming and nuclear activity.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Quantitative Reasoning and Analytical Writing in a Global Climate Change
In this lesson students use Microsoft Excel to manipulate and statistically analyze large climate databases of precipitation., temperature, stream discharge, tree ring data, ice core data, and ENSO to determine climate relationships and...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Earth Science: Tree Rings, Ice Cores, and Varves
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] How scientists can determine age and other features of a rock or material it contains.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Earth Science: Tree Rings, Ice Cores, and Varves
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] How scientists can determine age and other features of a rock or other material.
PBS
Pbs: Nova: Learning About Earth's History With Ice Cores
This resource explains how ice cores are used to analyze past events like air pollution, volcanic activity, climate changes, and radioactivity.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Ice Stories: Ice and Sediment Cores
Learn how scientists look inside glacial ice sheets by studying ice cores and use the clues found there to learn about past climates.
PBS
Nova: Into Living Things
Paleoclimatologists use information from tree rings, corals and ice cores to learn more about El Nino. See if you can analyze samples of each of these types of evidence to look for past El Nino events.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: How Ice Cores Are Used to Determine Past Climate
Find out how climate scientists use data from ice cores to determine past climate conditions.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Earth Science: Tree Rings, Ice Cores, and Varves Study Guide
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] This study guide summarizes key points about tree rings, ice cores, and varves. Includes a question to check for understanding.