Robert Gardner - Tundra Experiments. 14 Science Experiments in One Hour or Less

Science Projects, Just in Time!

Have you waited until the last minute to start your science project? Dont worry, award-winning author Robert Gardner has you covered. Most of these experiments about the tundra biome can be done in an hour or less! There are also a few longer experiments for the budding scientist and ideas for science fair projects in case you have more time!

This creative series tackles science concepts that are important for students to learn in a simplified and meaningful way.

About The Author

Robert Gardner is an award-winning author of science books for young people. He is a retired high school teacher of physics, chemistry, and physical science. In 2010, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hands-On Science Writing from AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Films.

Do you have a science project that is due soon, maybe tomorrow? This book will help you! It has experiments about tundra biomes. Many of the experiments can be done in 30 minutes or less. An estimate of the time needed is given for each experiment. Maybe you have plenty of time to prepare for your next science project or science fair; you can still use and enjoy this book.

Many experiments are followed by a Keep Exploring section. There you will find ideas for more science projects. The details are left to you, the young scientist. With more time, you can design and carry out your own experiments, under adult supervision.

For some experiments, you may need a partner to help you. Work with someone who likes to do experiments as much as you do. Then you will both enjoy what you are doing. In this book, if any safety issues or danger is involved in doing an experiment, you will be warned. In some cases you will be asked to work with an adult. Please do so. Dont take any chances that could lead to an injury.

A biome is a region of the earth with a particular climate. The plants and animals that live in a biome are quite similar all around the world. This book is about tundra biomes. But there are other biomes, too. Earths land biomes include deserts, tundra, taiga, grasslands, rain forests, and temperate forests.

Tundra biomes cover one-fifth of the earths land. That is an area equal to approximately 10 million square miles. Tundra stretches across the northernmost regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. The word tundra is related to a Finnish word meaning treeless plaina brief, but reasonable, description of the biome.

Tundra biomes are found north of the taiga forests (see later in this book.

Winter temperatures range from a very chilly 57C to 7C (70F to 19F). And the winds make it feel much colder. The ground is so cold that there is permafrost (permanently frozen ground) beneath the upper soil that melts in summer. The permafrost extends to a depth as great as 2,000 feet. During the brief summer, temperatures range between 1C to 16C (30F to 60F). With temperatures above freezing, there is about a foot of unfrozen tundra soil. But the permafrost prevents water from seeping very deep. The result is soggy ground. You can build a model of the permafrost in .

Buried in the permafrost are the preserved carcasses of thousands of woolly mammoths. A number of them have been removed and studied by biologists. Some scientists think it may one day be possible to produce a woolly mammoth using DNA from one of these frozen mammals.

The seasonal temperatures are related to sunlight. From mid-November until late January, much of the northern tundra never sees the sun. Then from late May until early August the sun never sets on this part of the tundra. However, light in the land of the midnight sun comes from a sun that moves close to the horizon. The sunlight travels a long path through Earths atmosphere. And the atmosphere absorbs some of the lights energy. The light strikes the tundra at a low angle. This spreads its diminished energy over a wide area. (See .) Sunlight reaching the tundra is not very intense. However, it shines 24 hours a day for two months. Therefore, the tundra receives a significant amount of solar energy through June and July.

The tundra in winter (left) and summer (right)

The soil is too shallow for trees to grow. Instead, the land is covered with a low growth of mosses, sedges, low shrubs, buttercups, poppies, saxifrage, and lichens. The roots of many of these plants survive the winter and foster new growth when spring arrives. There are also fast-growing plants that flower and make seeds quickly. Any plants that grow in the tundra are adapted for that biome. They have a short growing season, can endure low temperatures, and can grow in a shallow soil that lacks many nutrients and organic matter.

The variety of species that live in the tundra is more limited than in other biomes. Of the almost five thousand mammal species on the earth, only fifty live on the tundra. Many birds migrate to the tundra to feast on the insects that flourish there in the summer. The only year-round birds are ptarmigans, snow buntings, ravens, and snowy owls. Other animals that spend the winter include brown bears, polar bears, musk ox, arctic foxes, arctic ground squirrels, lemmings, voles, and weasels. In the seas near the tundra, we find whales, seals, walrus, and various fish.

To do experiments the way scientists do, you need to know about the scientific method. It is true that scientists in different areas of science use different ways of experimenting. Depending on the problem, one method is likely to be better than another. Designing a new medicine for heart disease and finding evidence of water on Mars require different kinds of experiments.

Despite these differences, all scientists use a similar approach as they experiment. It is called the scientific method. In most experimenting, some or all of the following steps are used: making an observation, coming up with a question, creating a hypothesis (a possible answer to the question) and a prediction (an if-then statement), designing and conducting an experiment, analyzing the results, drawing conclusions about the prediction, and deciding if the hypothesis is true or false. Scientists share the results of their experiments by writing articles that are published in science journals.

Snowy owl

You might wonder how you can use the scientific method. You begin when you see, read, or hear about something in the world that makes you curious. So you ask a question. To find an answer, you do a well-designed investigation; you use the scientific method.

Once you have a question, you can make a hypothesis. Your hypothesis is a possible answer to the question (what you think is true). For example, you might hypothesize that because a tundra is damp, rainfall in a tundra is greater than in grassland. Once you have a hypothesis, it is time to design an experiment to test your hypothesis.

In most cases, you should do a controlled experiment. This means having two subjects that are treated the same except for the one thing being tested. That thing is called a variable. For example, to test the hypothesis above, you might measure the annual rainfall in a grassland and in a tundra for a decade. If you found that the rainfall in the grassland was significantly more than in the tundra, you would conclude that your hypothesis was wrong.