Temperature from Ice Core Data (IRMS)

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

• Teaching Tips
  This visualization was created as part of "Lesson 2" in a climate change module that can be seen at [link http://www.explainingclimatechange.ca/Climate%20Change/Lessons/Lesson%202/lesson2.html] and also in the CLEAN collection. Could be used as an introduction to how we know how global temperatures have changed over time to set up a comparison to how global temperatures have changed in recent years. Teachers will have to provide questions students have to explore when reading through the webpages.
• About the Science
  Excellent step-by-step explanation of how ice core samples are used to determine historic temperature trends, including a breakdown of the biochemical processes that drive the process, the chemical equations and calculations used, and how the sampling process works in practice.
• About the Pedagogy
  The explanations are clear and straightforward and do an excellent job of communicating a complex process in simple terms. Animation includes 5 nicely-designed webpages with a good explanation of the oxygen isotope dating method.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  The animations and text are displayed very clearly. Can only be viewed online (need internet access). Well-designed pages with little ability to interact with the content.