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Catalyst: Nautical Robots

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Computer image of submarine robot diving below sea surface
Catalyst: Nautical Robots

SUBJECTS:  Maths, Science, Technologies

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


How might you find out how much and where the Earth's oceans are warming?

Watch the report by Ruben Meerman and discover how more than 3000 'nautical robots', known as argo floats, have been placed in the oceans to collect data on variations in temperature, pressure and salinity.


Things to think about

  1. 1.How would you work out the average rate of change in temperature over a day? Imagine if the temperature was measured during a day from 11.00 am every hour until 3.00 pm with measurements, 18°C, 20°C, 23°C, 25°C, 26°C. Choose your answer from 1°C per hr, 2°C per hr or 3°C per hr.
  2. 2.Dr. Susan Wijffels explains how warming of the ocean partly controls sea level rise. What is the connection between water temperature, expansion and volume? According to CSIRO data, sea level has increased by the rate of 5 cm over 15 years. Ruben describes that rate as more than 3 mm per year. How would he have calculated to that figure?
  3. 3.Sea level has increased by 5 cm over 15 years. The rate is 5 cm = 50 mm, 50 / 15 = 3.3 mm per year. Imagine the sea level rise was 50 per cent higher than the actual 5 cm. In this case how many millimeters would the sea be rising by each year? The answer is one of the following: 50 mm, 5mm, 0.5 mm, 6.7 mm.
  4. 4.Use the internet to locate graphs and data about the sea level and ocean water temperature from 1850 to the present day. Analyse and interpret the graphs to check the rate at which the change is occurring for each decade. How does that compare to the rate of 3.3 mm per year suggested in the video?



Date of broadcast: 26 Feb 2009


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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