This activity helps children understand how sea ice loss affects polar animals, particularly polar bears that depend on ice for hunting. Through physical movement and role-play, students experience first-hand how habitat changes impact an animal's ability to find food.

Preparation

1. Clear a large open space in the classroom or use the playground/hall

2. Place white paper "ice floes" across the floor with some space between them

3. Place the seal photos around the Arctic Ocean space

4. Use chalk or tape to delineate the Arctic Ocean area

Activity steps

1. Gather students and explain they are going to be polar bears hunting for food in the Arctic, showing a photo of a polar bear hunting. Tell students that they need to only walk across the ice floes to find the seals. (Note: polar bears can swim short distances, but longer distances take a lot of energy and can cause exhaustion.)

2. Select one or two students to be polar bears, with the rest of the class observing for the first round.

3. Explain the rules:

• Polar bears must move from ice floe to ice floe

• They can only "catch food" when standing on an ice floe

• They must follow your start and stop signals

Round 1: Plenty of ice

1. Start with many ice floes spread across the area.

2. Have polar bears move from floe to floe, "hunting" for food.

3. When a bear finds a seal picture, they have found food.

4. Allow bears to hunt successfully for 1-2 minutes.

Round 2: Some ice loss

1. Pause the activity and remove about a third of the ice floes.

2. Tell students: "The ocean is warming, and some ice has melted".

3. Restart the activity with fewer ice floes.

4. Ask bears to continue hunting for 1-2 minutes.

Round 3: Significant ice loss

1. Pause again and remove half of the remaining ice floes.

2. Tell students: "The ocean has gotten even warmer, and more ice has melted".

3. Restart the activity with very few ice floes.

4. Have bears try to continue hunting with limited ice for 1-2 minutes.

Role rotation (optional)

If time allows, rotate roles so more students can experience being polar bears

Activity materials

• 15-20 sheets of white paper (A4 size) to represent "ice floes"

• Photos of seals

• Blue tape or chalk

• Timer or stopwatch

• Whistle or other sound maker to signal transitions

Polar bears are amazing Arctic animals that depend on sea ice to hunt for seals, their main food. But the Arctic is changing. Since scientists started tracking sea ice in 1979, they have seen it shrinking. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reports that summer sea ice is disappearing at a rate of about 13% per decade. This is a big change for polar bears because they rely on ice to find food.

As the Arctic warms, sea ice is melting earlier in the year, making it harder for polar bears to reach their prey. With less ice, bears must travel farther and expend more energy to find food, which can affect their health and survival.

Not all polar bears are affected in the same way. In the Southern Beaufort Sea, the number of bears dropped by about 40% between 2001 and 2010, which matches the loss of sea ice (Bromaghin et al., 2015). But in Svalbard, their population has grown since the 1970s, thanks to a hunting ban (Aars et al., 2017). In the Kane Basin, a High Arctic region, the number of polar bears has stayed the same or even slightly increased despite the changes in ice (Laidre et al., 2018).

Even where polar bears are still living in good numbers, scientists have noticed some worrying signs. Many bears are thinner and not as healthy as before. Cubs in some areas are struggling to survive (Stirling & Derocher, 2012). In Western Hudson Bay, the ice melts earlier in the year than it used to. Because of this, polar bears have a shorter time to hunt, and today, they weigh about 15% less than they did 30 years ago (Lunn et al., 2016). Some bears have started to eat different foods, like bird eggs (Prop et al., 2015), and in some places, they are seen more often near towns searching for food (Towns et al., 2009).

Scientists continue to study polar bears to learn more about how they are adapting. By understanding these incredible animals, we can help make sure they have a future in a changing world.