GLACIER SURFACE FIELD EXPERIENCES AND GIS TRAINING PROVIDE ALASKA'S SCIENCE TEACHERS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR USE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS

As part of the Experiential Discoveries in Geoscience Education (EDGE http://www.uas.alaska.edu/envs/edge), an NSF-funded year of geoscience enrichment, 25 Alaska secondary science teachers have donned crampons and utilized ice-axes to explore the dynamic surface of the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau. In June 2007, the teachers collected their own GPS data from ablation wires, ice surface velocity monitoring sites and erratic boulders along medial moraines. Back in the classroom the teachers created unique GIS maps, by importing their own glacier process-linked GPS data points and combining them with 1999-2007 terminus positions collected by University Alaska undergraduate and graduate students. They also imported geospatial information from published and digitized maps of 18th-20th century, post-Little Ice Age terminus recessional moraines, USGS topographic maps, LANDSAT and IKONOS imagery. The teachers were able to compare 2006-2007 retreat rates with those determined from the previous ~238 years of glacier terminus position data. Instructor-provided knowledge of glacier processes and the use of historic weather records allowed theteachers to differentiate between ice loss caused by accelerated glacier lake-calving processes and ice loss attributed to warming climate. Teachers will use these data and GIS maps in their secondary science classrooms to train their own middle and high school students in the use of GIS software. These Alaskan students will in turn develop their own science fair style, semester-scale research projects by collecting local geomorphic data to better understand ongoing landscape and community infrastructure changes resulting from rapid warming across the state. The Mendenhall Glacier datasets and interpretation will soon be available on the University Alaska Southeast node of the Geographical Information Network of Alaska (http://www.gina.alaska.edu).