A TEAM OF UP TO: 2 APPROXIMATE TIME: 50 Minutes

EVENT PARAMETERS: Teams may bring a four-function calculator, plus handwritten, typed, or computer-generated resources, including books, to the event. All resources must fit within the confines of an area no larger than 12” x 12” x 3”.

THE COMPETITION: Participants will be presented with one or more tasks, each requiring the use of process skills. These skills include, but are not limited to, generating inferences, making predictions, problem solving, making and recording observations, formulating and evaluating hypotheses, interpreting data, and graphing. This event will address glaciation as it relates to Planet Earth only.

Topics of study may include, but are not limited to:

• Transformation from snow to glacial ice

• Mass balance: accumulation vs. ablation

• Types of glaciers: ice sheets (continental), ice caps, ice shelves, highland icefields, valley glaciers, piedmont glaciers, hanging glaciers

• Glaciers as indicators of climatic changes

• Glacial flow: internal deformation, basal sliding, movement over soft, deformable beds

• Large scale glacial erosional landforms: cirques, horns, fords, glaciated valleys

• Glacial deposition landforms: terminal moraine, lateral moraine, drumlins

• Glacial meltwater deposition: outwash plains, kettle lakes, eskers

• Earth’s glacial record: major periods of glaciation, rock record; sediment cores, ice cores, effects of precession and changes in Earth’s tilt

REPRESENTATIVE ACTIVITY: Participants will determine the approximate area of the Grinnel Glacier using each of a series of twelve outline maps drawn intermittently over a period of more than 100 years. They will then enter this information onto a graph and use their results to respond to several interpretive questions. This activity may be found at:

http ://www.tufts. edulas/wright_center/fellows/sci_olympiad/sciolympi adgeo.html.

SCORING: Points will be awarded for the quality and accuracy of responses. A minimum of three preidentified questions will serve as tiebreakers.

RESOURCES: “Glaciers, Climate, and the Landscape” by Zach Smith, downloadable from the Wright - Center for Innovative Science Education website, Tufts University, Boston: http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/fellows/zachfinal.pdf

Glaciers, Hambrey, Michael, and Alean, Jurg, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0521 82808 2 hardback.

National Science Education Standards: Earth and Space Science, Content Standard D: Structure of the Earth System and Earth’s History (Grades 5-8); Earth and Space Science, Content Standard D: Origin and Evolution of the Earth System (Grades 9-12). National Geography Standard: Number 7, Element 3: Physical Processes that Shape the Patterns of Earth’s Surface.