This week we will watch and discuss a NOVA video about big changes going on in the ice on our planet.

This week's writing assignment should follow the format described in the 'Writing Assignment Template' document. If you need to show calculations, those can be hand-written on your typed document. This week's assignment should include: 1. Answers to your group's questions 2. All questions on page 3 of the lab handout

In this lab, we examine the distribution of glaciers in the Pacific Northwest and how they've changed over time.

What kinds of numbers do we use in the sciences, what units are associated with them and how can we use these numbers to get a good feel for the sizes of glaciers, mountains and icebergs?

What glacial landforms were formed by the Puget Lobe and ice sheets in general? In this lab, we'll about all sorts of glacial landforms, which will come in handy during the field trips.

What glacial landforms are present around Seattle? We'll look at the Wedgwood Erratic, consider Ravenna Park and Green Lake, check out drumlins from the top of Queen Anne and finally look at landslides in Magnolia.

What's can Discovery Park tell us about the recent history of glaciers in Seattle? How have the glacial deposits affected the topography of Discovery Park? We'll go down to the beach at Discovery Park and sort it all out.

How can a glacier cause large floods? We'll learn the different ways that such floods can occur and we'll investigate recent and older glacial floods in Iceland and Washington state.

What are ice cores, how do we date them and what do we use them for? We'll learn how glaciologists date ice cores and we'll interpret ice-core records from Greenland, Antarctica and Canada.

What controls the the size of continental ice sheets? We'll learn about Milankovitch cycles, their connection to glaciers and evidence of these cycles in ice-core records.