ae.01 Ice Ice Baby
Content
- Statement of inquiry
- Scientific and technical innovators need to understand how power affects the processes that occur within systems.
- Factual questions [Remembering facts and topics]
- How do alpine glaciers gain and lose mass?
- Conceptual questions [Analysing big ideas]
- How is a glacier a system?
- Debatable questions [Evaluating perspectives and developing theories]
- Alpine environments have a great and valuable beauty.
- Aims of this lesson
- To explore alpine environments as natural wonders within extreme environments.
- To understand that glaciers are physical systems within extreme environments.
- To have knowledge and understanding of how snow changes over time to become glacier ice - as a process within a system.
Base knowledge and understanding
Visualization

Context
The awe and wonder of alpine environments
Use Earth for web to explore the following:
- The longest glacier in Europe.
- Evidence of the glacial maximum of the Mer de Glace.
- A glacier you can ski on in Europe.
- The Trift Suspension Bridge, Switzerland.
- The largest glacier in continental Europe.
- The Aiguille du Midi and the Cosmiques Arête.
Task 1 - How alpine glaciers gain and lose mass

- Add the diagram above to your notes for this unit along with a definition of accumulation zone, equilibrium line and ablation zone.
Task 2 - From snow to ice
- Synthesis the information in these four sources to produce a flow chart that illustrates and quantifies the process of glacial ice formation.
- Have a go at this exam style questions → Describe the transition from fresh snow to glacial ice.