Module V

How are climate, cultures and oceans all connected?

I love living near the ocean, and have been able to do so for most of my life. I have lived in Sitka and Anchorage, AK, as well as Boston and Cape Cod, MA. The only years I spent away from the ocean were during my time in the Peace Corps, in the landlocked country of Mali, Northwest Africa. I missed the seafood, salty air, beaches, sea birds, and swimming. It is easy for me to see why more than 50% of the world's population lives near the ocean. We benefit from this proximity by obtaining food, salt, transportation, and a sense of well being.

Part of my love of the ocean is tied to my love of swimming. I have swum in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Sea of Cortez, Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, and the North Sea, as well as visiting the Bering Sea. Below are some maps from Google Earth with my swimming spots marked.

The reason that many of these places were warm enough for me to swim in even though some are at high latitudes is that they are in the path of some of the warm ocean surface currents, driven by the Easterly winds at the equator, and the Westerlies at higher latitudes. The Gulf Stream runs up from the equator past Massachusetts and Maine, and then due to the shape of the Atlantic Ocean basin and the Westerlies it heads over to Europe to warm them up as well. In the Pacific Ocean the Japanese (Kuroshio) current warms the waters of Sitka, bringing pottery shards and glass buoys along with it .

These ocean surface currents are also driven by the deeper thermohaline currents known as the ocean conveyor belt. In the Arctic ocean the surface water brought by currents such as the Gulf Stream cools and then sinks and flows into the ocean basins with most of it upwelling in the Southern Oceans. This water is nutrient rich, and provides food for sea life in the equatorial region.

During my undergraduate studies I was able to study in Woods Hole, MA for a semester at the Marine Biological Laboratory with some of the worlds leading scientists. One of the most shocking things I learned there was that climate change may shut down or change the ocean conveyor belt. The reasoning behind this is that is there is a large influx of fresh water into the oceans (from sea ice, ice caps, and permafrost melting) the Arctic Ocean may not work as an engine for thermohaline circulation. The cold fresh water would not sink past the warmer more saline water below it. If this were the case a new conveyor belt might start up somewhere else, or perhaps not at all. This would mean much less food for sea life near the equator and much cooler temperatures in the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Students are interested in Oceans because their cultures have evolved beside and upon them. The oceans are a source of food for most people and many other species on the planet. Many of my students come from cultures that still need a healthy ocean to survive, such as Tlingit, Yupik, Phillipino, and Samoan. Other students might be interested in oceans due to foods and sea creatures that they are fond of.

As pollution and climate change threaten the living creatures within it we are going to start seeing some drastic food shortages around the world. Current oceanic events, such as coral reefs dying, unexplained declines in sea otter, sea lion, and shorebird populations, and a huge trash vortex in the Pacific Ocean are very personal to these students and help to interest them in learning about science. To further pique student interest teachers can invite speakers such as native elders into the classroom to share their culture's need for a healthy ocean, and their current experiences with pollution and climate change. There are also great videos of elders speaking found on the teachers domain website, such as "Living from the Land and Sea" and "Warmer Oceans Affect Food Web". Teachers can also take their students on field trips to places such as the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward that teach about what is going on with the ocean and how pollution can damage wildlife.

Taking students' interest in the oceans to a further level we can start to teach them about the relationship between regional climates and the warm ocean currents, and how climate change might shut all of these currents down. The youtube video demonstrating the high specific heat capacity of water is fun and very interesting, and would be an easy demo to do in the classroom. The teacher domain interactive site showing ocean currents is very clear and easy to understand and would also work very well in the classroom. Using technology such as Google Earth, Youtube Videos, and interactive websites we make this information fun and exciting for students in the classroom.

Module IV

Essential Question: How do stories of cataclysmic events help inform students about geosciences and cultures?

My earliest memories of earthquakes involve watching the ensuing evacuation of downtown Sitka as people hurried to Sitka High, one of the highest refuges in town. Our house was situated on a high hill, and we could stay there and observe, safely above the land that the feared Tsunami would wash over. This was the early 1980's and the memory of the 1964 Quake must have still been fresh in everyone's minds. I always pictured that wave coming in as a giant wall of water, and only recently learned that it would have probably arrived as more of a monster high tide.

The 1964 earthquake was the last major earthquake that occurred in Southern Alaska. It was a 9.2 on the Richter Scale, making it the second largest quake in recorded history, and lasted for more than 4 minutes. It caused devastating damage in many Alaskan communities, including Anchorage, Valdez, and Seward. The quake was caused by plate tectonics, with the more dense Pacific Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate. Earthquakes are caused when pressure is released by the two plates sliding past each other. Southern Alaska has lots of little earthquakes caused by this process, and you can see the latest earthquakes by using the Real-time Earthquakes plugin found on Google Earth.

The Latest Earthquakes in Alaska, as seen on Google Earth, 2/21/10 - 1:59 pm

These little earthquakes actually help keep us safe. Seismologists start to worry when there is a respite from quakes anywhere along our tectonic plate boundary, because it means that pressure is building up, and the more pressure released in an earthquake, the bigger it is. In the case of the 1964 Quake, the released pressure allowed the N. American plate to rebound up about 9 meters underneath the ocean, and caused a large open ocean waves, or Tsunami. Underwater landslides in the bays of fjords also triggered local waves that did much to damage coastal communities.

Earthquakes originate at the point where pressure between the plates is released, which is called the epicenter. The first waves to leave the epicenter are the primary, or P waves. These look kind of "centipedy", moving like sound waves by compacting and extending. We can sense these waves, but they don't do much damage. The secondary, or S waves, that follow are much more damaging, as they move more sinuously, up and down and side to side. Together P and S waves cause surface waves, which make the ground undulate as if it were the ocean and tear buildings to pieces. Early warning systems are being designed that can be used in some areas, such as the San Andreas Fault, to detect the P waves and give up to 10-15 seconds of warning before the damage starts. This doesn't seem like much, but even a little time allows transportation systems to begin to slow and stop, greatly reducing the damage that could be caused.

Plate boundaries are also the home to volcanoes, which are caused by the upwelling of superheated rock, or magma. As a subducting plate delves into the earth's crust it is reheated, and rises back up to the surface, creating a volcano.

The Ring of Fire - where volcanoes and plate boundaries overlap

This phenomenon is apparent along the northern boundary of the Pacific Plate, where it dives back down into the mantle, forming the Aleutian Trench, and subsequently the Aleutian Archipelago showing direct cause and effect. The Aleutian Archipelago consists of 300 mostly volcanic islands, and has at least 57 active volcanoes. These volcanoes can be explored through a great interactive site found on Teachers Domain.

Volcanoes can occur in the middle of tectonic plates as well, as shown by the Hawaiian Island Emporer Seamount Chain. This is believed to be caused by a "hot spot" underneath the Pacific plate, where superheated rock rises. As the Pacific Plate moves northward a few cm per year over this "hot spot" new volcanic islands are formed. In fact, a new volcanic island, Loihi, is building up beneath the ocean and is set to emerge in the next several thousand years.

It is important that today's students learn about cataclysmic events because society needs to continue to be plan for them happening, and be prepared when they do. This is easier to do in Southern Alaska, because we have evidence of the subduction zone all around us. However, not all students here grow up in coastal villages, hearing stories from elders about past tsunamis and quakes, or even watching the town evacuate after every earthquake as I did. It is easy to forget the past, even in Anchorage, where buildings disintegrated and half of 4th avenue dropped ten feet. Large houses and even high rises are being built atop the Bootlegger Cove clay west of C street. In the next large quake this clay will liquify and shake like jello, and some structures may even slide into Cook Inlet as they did in 1964. Schools no longer practice earthquake drills, which have been supplanted by the more exciting "stay put" and "lockdown" drills that deal with armed intruders.

As teachers we need to make sure that students receive the education about cataclysmic events that they might not be receiving from their families, tv shows, and favorite internet sites. Easy activities, such as squeezing toothpaste up through a slowly moving screen, can show students how the Pacific "hot spot" is creating the Hawaiian Islands. Technology such as Google Earth and Youtube can bring these events into the classroom and make them exciting and real for students. Google Earth can be used to show simple cause and effect with plate boundaries and the real time earthquakes plugin. Students can use the measuring tool to show that the Aleutian Archipelago mirrors the Aleutian trench, and then learn about specific volcanoes using the interactive Teachers Domain site mentioned above. They can complete an inquiry activity where they watch the amazing Youtube video of the 1958 Lituya Bay Tsunami (told by the fisherman and his son that rode the wave and survived) and use Google Earth to see what evidence of the Tsunami can be found, and to try to determine what caused the event.

The more our students know about cataclysmic events, the better our society will be able to predict and respond to cataclysmic events. Our culture lives in a subduction zone replete with earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, and like cultures in the past we either need to adapt, migrate, or perish. I vote for adapting.

Module III

Essential Question: How are landscapes formed and how, in turn, are cultures shaped by their landscapes?


I was born in Sitka, Alaska. Sitka is positioned on the Western side of Baranof Island, in Southeast Alaska and is bordered by mountains to the East, and Sitka Sound to the West, sheltered from the brunt of the Pacific Ocean by Kruzof Island.

A typical day at the beach when I was little, photo taken by my mother

The landscape in Southeastern Alaska has been formed mostly through tectonic plate movement. Most of Alaska lies on the North American plate, and as the more dense Pacific plate subducts beneath it mountains are pushed up from the ocean floor, forming Southeast and South-central Alaska. As the Pacific plate begins to melt back into the mantle it creates rising magma and volcanoes, which build up new landforms. One such volcano visible from Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, erupted long ago, covering the area in up to twenty feet of ash, contributing to the fertile soil in the region. More recently this 3,200 foot volcano was the subject of an April Fool's day joke, when resident Porky Bickar helicoptered more than 70 old tires into the crater and lit them on fire, causing quite a ruckus in town.

Swimming this summer at John Brown's beach with a view of Mt. Edgecumbe,
photo taken by my husband Ben

Southeastern Alaska has also been shaped by erosion caused by glaciers, the ocean, rivers, wind, and rain. In the last ice age this area was covered in ice, and U- shaped valleys formed while mountains were carved and rounded. The area was depressed by the weight of the glaciers and is currently rebounding, and in some places sea level is actually retreating.

Sitka is one of the oldest and most culturally rich communities in Alaska. The word Sitka comes from the contraction of the Tlingit name "Shee-Atika" which means people on the side of the Shee (Baranof Island). Some trace the Tlingit in Sitka back 10,000 years. The Russians discovered Sitka in 1741 and the last major stand by the Tligits against the Russians occurred in 1804. Then known as "New Archangel", it became the Russian capitol in 1808. The location was so highly valued by both the Russians and Tlingits because of the abundant furs, salmon, lumber, and ice (from man-made Swan Lake near the center of town). Both cultures found it easy to live off the land as well as enriching to trade and barter the goods that could be easily acquired there. Because the land was so easy to live off of, and so accessible by the sea, the Tlingit culture had to fend off many other Alaskan native peoples long before the arrival of the Russians, and this experience helped them to hold them off for as long as they did.

A Tlingit totem in Totem Park, photo by Cat Walker

The Russian Orthodox church in the center of town, photo by Cat Walker

To this day the landscape remains hospitable to wildlife as well as the ~8,000 human inhabitants. When I was a child my sister and I would wade out into the rivers and scoop up the returning salmon with our bare hands. Sea life is still plentiful and currently Sitka is the 6th largest port by value of seafood harvest in the U.S. and has the largest harbor system in Alaska. The Japanese current runs up past Sitka, making the waters warm enough for swimming, and the volcanic ash fertilizer along with the abundant rain fall (86" per year) helps the forest grow large and green.

Living close to the land, as the Tlingit people did and to some extent still do, enables people to stay healthy as individuals and as a culture. Unless the land has been polluted, as it has been in some areas of the Arctic region by global weather patterns and bio-accumulation, the food that hunters and gatherers collect is extremely healthy. The sense of pride in providing for oneself and one's family, readily apparent in this video about the Cu'pik people of Chevak, provides a mental health that is hard to achieve in a Western Culture, where we see little connection between the work that we do and the food and shelter that sustain us.

Google Earth helps change the way I look at the world in a variety of ways. In this case, it helped me to remember the landscape I spent the first 10 years of my life surrounded by, as well as helping me to discover things about it I never would have learned due to the limits of hiking and boating. In other instances it has helped me to research areas that I have never been able to visit, and due to monetary constrictions will probably not make it to.

I have shared Google Earth with my students as an introductory lesson where we drop pins for each student in the place they consider home, and then throughout the year we revisit these places and share cultural and geologic information. I also have been able to teach an elective that focuses on GIS/GPS and we spend time learning how to construct maps of the landscape around them and derive information from maps found online. One of the lessons I plan on having the class complete is to introduce their "home" through a map they construct that has both visual and audio links to their family history. I hope this will engage students by helping them learn more about Alaskan cultures and the land around them. Perhaps some of these students who grow up with a foot in each culture will someday have careers similar to Richard Glenn where they can return to their villages and share their expertise to the benefit of their people and the world around them.

Module II

Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists? What are the advantages to knowing both ways?

Below is a Venn Diagram adapted from Sidney Stephens' Handbook for Culturally Responsive science curriculum. Click on the picture to enlarge.

I didn't realize how informative this Venn Diagram is about the similarities and differences of Indigenous and Scientific knowledge until I had read through Module II and taken notes on all of the readings and videos. So much of what I jotted down can be found in this diagram in a much more succinct format.


I spent much of my childhood in Sitka, Alaska outdoors. Later on I spent a few years in the Peace Corps living in a remote Malian village living off the land. Due to these experiences the Indigenous way of knowing makes a great deal of sense to me. Native peoples view the world in a holistic way, and through their close relationship with the environment they see the complex system of interconnectedness of every aspect around them. Everything has a spirit, and the goal is to coexist within their surroundings, doing their best as part of a circle of life. Knowledge is qualitative and is passed down through oral histories and traditions in an unstructured way. Traits such as character, patience, stress tolerance, and creativity are valued in these cultures because they enable individuals to survive and gain knowledge and teach it to their people.

I also was brought up in schools teaching the structured reductionist ways of Western Science. I learned the value of using quantitative knowledge dependent on institutions and processes to explain the world around us. Western Science also believes that the everything is connected (through unified string theory), and is able to use amazing technological breakthroughs and global perspective to further understand just how interconnected the universe truly is. By studying the relationships between the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere we can see how those component parts have evolved, function, and will further evolve. The same traits of individuals are valued in Western science that I mentioned above (character, patience, stress tolerance, and creativity) because they enable scientists like Galileo, Newton, and Einstein to modify our knowledge base.

Advantages of both ways of knowing are easily demonstrated through the work of Dustin Madden, an assistant science teacher in the Anchorage School District. A teacher domain video of Madden teaching shows how he is incorporating hands on, holistic, inquiry based methods into his science classroom. Indigenous peoples have had a much longer time to build up their knowledge base, whereas Western science is able to incorporate technology and communication to gather knowledge on a more global, or even universal, scale. These two knowledge bases compliment each other because both can bring something to the table that the other does not have.

If we apply both ways of knowing to education we make knowledge more interesting and accessible to students. Scientific learning should be integrated with other subjects to teach students a more global perspective, and students should learn in a more holistic way so they can see the impact of their lives on the world around them. If we learn from a traditional native education we can see that students are more involved when the learning is student centered and begins with local knowledge that builds to learning about the world and universe. Students also benefit from hands on inquiry based methods such as getting them out into nature to explore, seen in the Dustin Madden video. Resources that we can use to integrate both perspectives are numerous. If we have access to Native elders they can be invited into the classroom to share knowledge, or we can take the students to them to experience the traditional way of life. If this is too difficult, we can show videos showing the Native lifestyle and perspective to our students. Many of these can be found at the Teachers Domain website, and Polar-Palooza website.

There is great value in both ways of knowing. We are able to gain from the rich knowledge base of indigenous people at the same time as we use cutting edge technology to see how the world around us works and changes. We can't truly understand how interconnected everything around us is until we take both ways of knowing into account. We are part of the circle of life, but we shouldn't be limited to coexisting with nature. We want our students to also be able to figure out how things work, why they work, and how they will change.