Students make a "flubber" glacier using glue, water and detergent and construct a glacier valley using plastic sheeting. Flubber behaves inmechanically similar ways to glacier ice, undergoing plastic deformation at low stresses and brittle failure at high stresses. Students are encourage to run several tests with diferent values for valley slope, glacier mass, temperature, and basal conditions.
the classroom exercise can be used in grade schools, high schools, and even college classrooms.
lesson plans:
1. copy of a grade-school lesson plan is here
2. graduate level flubber projects
a. modeling the Malaspina glacier, alaska
b. using flubber to model ice shelf properties
3. strain grids
4. quicktime movie
5. different model setups
