THE+ICE+AGE

1. What comes to mind when you hear 'Ice Age'? How did the Ice Age change earth and it's living things? Generate a list of 20 animals, plants or ideas you associate with the ice age.

2. Generate a list of direct evidence that tells us what earth was like during the ice age. It can include fossil evidence, rock evidence and living things.

3. Your group will answer the following questions on the worksheet LEARNING ABOUT THE ICE AGE: a. What is an ice age? What does the term mean when it is capitalized (Ice Age)? When have ice ages occurred, and what has caused them to take place? http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/ http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/ice_age/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ice/ http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/samson/climate_patterns/

b. What plants and animals lived during the Ice Age? How do we know about these animals? Give examples of where animal remains have been found and what they have taught scientists. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/labrea.html http://www.zoomdinosaurs.com/subjects/mammals/Iceagemammals.shtml http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/waking-the-baby-mammoth-3630/Overview http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090420-baby-mammoth-photo.html

c. Why did many animals become extinct at the end of the Ice Age? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0810_050810_iceage.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1057050.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/17/neanderthals-cannibalism-anthropological-sciences-journal http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070924172959.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction_event

4. Complete the GIVING A SCIENTIFIC OPINION prompt.

IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE A SCIENTIST STUDYING GLOBAL WARMING. YOU'VE BEEN ASKED TO SPECULATE WHETHER WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PERIOD OF GLOBAL WARMING. hOW COULD YOU TELL WHETHER WE ARE IN A PERIOD OF GLOBAL WARMING? (HINT: wHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS DURING THE ICE AGE?) WHAT EFFECT DO YOU THINK ANY ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES WILL HAVE ON ANIMALS LIVING TODAY? DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD TRY TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING? IF SO, WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

Answer the following questions on a sheet of notebook paper and attach it to your worksheet.

a. Explain how human life might be different today if the Ice Age were still at its peak, as it was 18,000 years ago. b. Describe the ways in which the Ice Age changed the landscape of the present-day United States. c. What do you think is the value of studying Ice Age fossils? What do you think they teach us about Earth today? d. Compare and contrast Pleistocene mammals with mammals living today. e. Discuss the reasons the mammoth and other Ice Age animals might have become extinct. f. Describe the ways in which Ice Age animals were affected by the presence of humans.