Antarctica

This page includes links to resources to go along with my Antarctic Unit! Find the Antarctic Unit and other nature-based learning materials in my Shop!

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1.) Temperature Data

Here’s how to find average monthly low and high temperatures in your area, for the graphing activity in the Antarctica Unit.

  1. Go to timeanddate.com
  2. Search for your city or town
  3. Under the “Weather” drop-down menu, select “Climate (Averages)”

2.) Antarctica Map

These maps may be useful as reference materials for the My Map of Antarctica project:

  • A map of Antarctica from the British Antarctic Survey.
  • An interactive map of Antarctica from the USGS – in the Layers tab, be sure to tick the boxes for “seas” and “glaciers” under the heading “Geographic Names”.
  • Cool Antarctica put together a list of several free Antarctica maps showing various features.

3.) Sea Ice – satellite imagery (external links)

Here are some websites where you can view satellite imagery of the Antarctic sea ice today and in recent history.

  • Sea Ice Imagery (recent)
    • Find today’s satellite images of sea ice on the National Snow and Ice Data Center website. Click the “Antarctic” tab.
    • To view previous months, scroll down until you see “Archives” on the right side of the screen and select the month and year you want to view.
  • Sea Ice Imagery (1990s to present)

4.) Additional free lesson plans – resources for instructors (external links)

I’ve curated this list of free lesson plans on Antarctic-related topics including animal adaptations, food webs, sea ice, and climate change. These lesson plans will go well with my Arctic unit and are great for adapting and expanding upon the unit.

  • California Academy of Sciences offers this free Habitat Adaptation Match-Up activity with worksheets. This is not an Arctic lesson – it focuses on marine species. But it definitely could be helpful for learning about adaptations in general (grades 1-3)
  • PBS has a Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers lesson plan – great to introduce these terms if they are new to your students! (grades 3-5)
  • Nova Online offers several lesson plans related to Antarctica and Shackleton’s Voyage (grades 5-8)
  • Study Earth’s orbit, seasons, and more with this Reasons For the Seasons webpage (multiple resources and lessons) from Cornell University’s Middle School Portal 2 website (~grades 6-8)
  • Investigating Sea Ice Extent in the Arctic and Antarctic lesson plan from My NASA Data (grades 6-12)
  • Here is a wonderful, hands-on climate change lesson for older students, initially developed by O’Reilly, C.M., D.C. Richardson, and R.D. Gougis as part of Project EDDIE: Climate Change. For the activity, students will graph real ice core data and use it to compare past and current trends in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations! Requires Microsoft Excel or similar software. (~higher education, but could work also for upper high school grades)
  • CU Boulder put together this big list of Ice Lesson Plans (various grade levels)
  • Ohio State University’s Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears website includes tons of teaching materials and lesson plans for activities related to climate change, sea ice, Antarctic animals, and much more (various grade levels)
  • The Australian Antarctic Program has an Antarctic education resources page with learning materials and games for various grade levels.

5.) References (external links)

These include reference websites, books, and materials I used to fact-check the information within the Antarctica Unit as well as websites you may find helpful when gathering background information on this unit’s topic. Use the links below to enjoy the wealth of information these references offer!

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