Before beginning this experiment, I have only a little background knowledge on the possible outcomes of melting glaciers, increasing water levels, and potential worldwide flooding. This investigation may cause some to predict that the melting ice in a glass full of water would cause the water to overflow (thus modeling flooding) however this did not happen in my investigation. This proved my hypothesis to be true. By using what I know about water displacement, I predicted that the ice is already "taking up space" in the glass, and when the ice melts that mass is simply transferred into liquid state and will not overflow.
How does this investigation connect to the melting polar ice caps? I believe this experiment shows that ice's mass presently in water is already accounted for in the overall water level. On the other hand, ice from glaciers on land that melts would cause a rise in water levels. This would only be for a limited time however, until the entire glacier melted and the source of water stopped. Possible outcomes could be flooding, but perhaps even more severe would be the effects on water to countries for drinking and irrigation. If this "source of life" were to dry up, countries would require more imports and even put the world's food supply at risk. I found the video "On Thin Ice", as referenced in our investigation, very interesting, but also know that it is only one side of the story.
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