Introduction
You will be traveling back in time in Oregon's history revealing the climate 40,000 years ago. In your journey you will be answering the following questions; What is climate? How has Earth’s climate changed over the past 2 million years? What caused past climate change? Why do ecologists study past climate? You will participate in pollen collection, identifying ancient pollen counts and analyzing pollen data. To start your journey you will begn with a WebQuest. A WebQuest is a computer based module which guides you through your journey. You will spend some time on the WebQuest (at the very beginning), in small discussion groups and some time outside collecting data etc.
So Let's Begin Our Journey!!!!
Task
The goals of these lessons are to provide you with an appreciation of the dynamic character of natural landscapes, their changes over thousands of years of climate change, and an understanding of some of the causes of those changes.
Earth surface changes from changing sea levels (and lake levels), the building and erosion of mountains, and shifting ocean currents. Thus, an understanding of geological processes and the causes and patterns of climate change is necessary context for paleoecologists.
One of the most common means of accessing the historical changes on landscapes is through pollen records preserved in sediments. In addition to this WebQuest, you will take a short tree walk around CMS and engage in lessons, which will require several class periods, involve 1) understanding the main causes of past climate changes, 2) learning the common forest trees and vegetation types of western Oregon, 3) learning the tools of paleoecology: coring, sediment processing, and pollen analysis, 4) collecting data on pollen types observed on prepared microscope slides, and finally 5) plotting data and interpreting the results. A sixth exercise addresses how paleoecological data is archived, accessed, and analyzed.
Process
You will begin your journey by paticipating in a WebQuest designed to guide you from 40,000 years ago to present time. Students will be doing "real Science" as you will collect pollen samples, become experts at identifying pollen from a local lake, analyze data, take a tree walk around the neighboring streets collecting leaf samples to create a dichotomous key. Students will participate in 5 lessons to further their understanding of climate change and why ecologist study past climate. At the conclusion of this quest you will have a better understanding of climate and how Earth’s climate changed over the past 2 million years.