Changing Planet: Permafrost Gas Leak

Missy Holzer

This is a multi-faceted activity that offers students a variety of opportunities to learn about permafrost and the role of methane in thawing permafrost.

Click to View

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.

Educators will need to familiarize themselves with websites associated with the various parts of the activity ahead of time, in addition to the worksheets and various data sets.
As permafrost thaws, the land, atmosphere, water resources, ecosystems, and human communities are affected. Background and data sources are National Snow and Ice Data Center and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Comments from expert scientist: The activity sheet and teacher reference do not have much information themselves, and instead refers students to websites with a strong reputation such as the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, NOAA and Arctic Portal. In terms of handling, exploring and displaying primary data, this activity is excellent.
Activity can be done in parts or as a whole; components include a video, background reading, demos, map analysis, and borehole data analysis. Students learn about composition of permafrost, identify the spatial distribution of permafrost, interpret borehole data and recognize trends in data, and analyze methane data and correlate it to the permafrost data. There are a lot of supporting materials for teachers, including multiple suggestions for extension activities.
The activity links to many external websites. At the time of this review (2024), the link to the NSIDC Frozen Ground site was broken. The updated URL to this page is [https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/frozenground/index.html]. There are also broken links in the resources section, but the lessons can still provide a valuable learning experience for students. The updated link to NSIDC classroom activities is [https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/frozenground/activities.html].