Module III

Glacier Bay National Park

Essential Question Redux: How are landscapes formed and how, in turn, are cultures shaped by their landscapes?


Explain:
One landscape that has awed me from the first time I learned about the effects of the landscape on the culture of this region is Glacier Bay, Alaska. This landmass lies on continental plates that are converging which causes erosion from movement of the glaciers that once covered the land. This erosion and receding of the glacier ice is leaving behind erratic geological features and carving out valleys that are forming the beautiful landscapes that we see today.
My first exposure to how this landscape formation directly affects the culture of an area was during my undergraduate program at UAS. I was working on a summer research program with Cathy Connor. She required that we kayak around the islands in Glacier Bay and take tree core, invertebrate, and sediment samples, as well as GPS points of each sample and physical markers that we felt had scientific significance. The purpose of this study was not to simply provide more data to researchers about the regression of the glaciers in Glacier Bay (numerous studies about that exist and are on-going), but to find scientific evidence to support the rate of regression that had been orally expressed by the indigenous people of this region. Put another way, we were to provide scientific evidence for the human history of this region with our study, The Neoglacial Landscape and Human History of Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.

Glacier, Glacier Bay AK

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I remember thinking how amazing it was that I was earning college credit to kayak around this beautiful and pristine area that I knew very little about. The research that I was taking part in had no true meaning to me at the time, and

I did not realize the significance of our work until I spoke to some elders about this experience later on in my life. It was through this discussion that I realized what an impact this study had on bringing the scientific and indigenous communities together to work side by side. This data provided the scientific community with culturally and scientifically relevant insights and a more well represented oral history than what they had available before. It validated the indigenous peoples stories with scientific data to support their oral history. I now recognize the importance of providing these two very important modes of shared information with a connection. On their own, the science of how and why the glaciers are receding and the oral history of the changes that have occurred in Glacier Bay are intriguing. Yet if we can combine these two ways of knowing to offer support and validity to one another, then we are only strengthening the knowledge that we can share with the next generations.

Evaluate:
While getting lost in the exploration of Google Earth I recognized the expanded knowledge that this resource can bring to my classroom. The use of Google Earth encompasses not only the availability of exploring different parts of the earth in great detail, but introducing my students to a new and ever-changing technology while providing them with the confidence to explore and play with an amazing program. I very much like the idea of giving my students a scavenger hunt that would allow them to explore all that Google Earth has to offer while exposing them to new places around the globe! What an exciting and worthwhile tool that I can use with my students, or as an extension for many projects.

Image: Glacier Bay National Park from https://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.glacier-bay.html
Image: Glacier from http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/photos/GlacierBay3.jpg