What would happen if the polar ice caps melted?
My first thought when thinking about this question was that if the polar ice caps melted then that would create flooding. After completing the experiment I changed my mind on the subject. I saw that the water did not overflow from the bowl. The water just dispersed. I feel that the same thing will happen if the polar ice caps melted. I do not think that it will cause flooding like so many people believe.
I think that this is a good experiment to get the children thinking about this topic. This is something that may very well effect them in the future and I think that is is good for us to introduce these kinds of things to the children. It is also a good way to help the children work on making hypotheses. It may also show them that what they expect to happen in an experiment may not be the results that they get. They need to learn that what they expect to see and what actually happens may be two different things.
One question that I do have is how accurate are the results that we get from this experiment compared to the larger scale of the polar ice caps?
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From what I understand, sea based ice melting is much like what happened in our experiment, it doesn't make much difference in the sea level. But when land based ice melts, like is happening in parts of Greenland and Antarctica, the ice that used to be on land is added to the sea and levels rise.
ReplyDeleteSomething else interesting I have read is that when the sea based ice melts, more heat from the sun is absorbed by the ocean which speeds the process of melting even further.