While studying mammals and North America, first graders learned about a habitat type called the tundra. Tundras occur in the northernmost parts of the globe including the Arctic, and the northern portions of North America, Europe, Siberia and Asia. In North America, you can find the tundra in northern Canada and parts of Alaska. Nonfiction books such as The Magic School Bus In the Arctic and Tundra introduced students to key vocabulary terms such as tree line and permafrost. Did you know the tundra is actually a type of desert? Although a desert is typically associated with the hot, dry, and sandy version, a desert is actually any landscape that has very little fresh water and resources. The tundra maybe be filled with fresh water in the form of snow and ice, but this water is unable to be used by the animals and plants in it’s frozen form. Because of the harsh conditions in the tundra, plants and animals that live there have to have special adaptations to survive. The books taught us about an important part of the Arctic habitat – how warm blooded animals keep themselves warm! Some animals have thick fur, and many have layers of blubber that act as insulation. Blubber is thick fat that is stored between the muscle and skin of the animals in order to keep body heat from escaping.

We used the scientific method to do an experiment to see just how effective blubber could be at keeping us warm. For our experiment, students would put both hands in cold water, one bare hand and one inside of a double-layer gloved packed with shortening between the laters. In this experiment, the shortening would act as blubber to insulate our hand from the cold water.

First we used the knowledge we learned from books and videos about blubber to answer the question “What does blubber do for Arctic animals?”. Next, students made a prediction about what would happen if they put both their hands in the water, one with the shortening as insulation and one without. Students found that the water was VERY cold on their bare hand and completely comfortable for their hand that was insulated with “blubber”. After testing it out, students returned to their tables to record their observations, determine if their prediction had been true, and write their conclusion.