Instructional Activities

One to two 50-min periods

Purpose:  The purpose of this lesson is for students to model the scientific process - which includes the experimental bench work they are completing in Lesson 5a and the collaboration and connection to others' research.  This lesson gives students the time and resources to learn from the work being completed by scientists and through their online contributions.

Introducing students to these self-driven activities

Complete this optional, supplemental lesson once students have fully begun their experiments (from Lesson 5a).  Day 2 of their experiments is an optimal time.  Begin the class period by asking them, "When you envision a scientist, what do you imagine them doing?"  Give them a moment to write some thoughts down in a lab notebook.  Then ask a few students to share.  Generally, students imagine scientists doing experiments, mixing chemicals, and/or working with scientific materials (beakers, pipets, colorful solutions).  Share with them that most scientists complete their bench experiments and/or field work and then spend a significant amount of their time learning about other people's research, analyzing data, building mathematical models, developing visualizations, and sharing their own data and methods with others. Effective scientists make great use of their time by coordinating events so that they can have experiments running, data gathering, and learning happening as stategically as possible.  This lesson contains activities that students can use in order to learn as much as they can about our oceans while they manage their experimental goals.

Here is one example of a collaborative animation that compiles many types of data to help others understand the history of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.  This animation is a product that numerous scientists and programmers contributed to so that we can better understand Trends in Atmospheric CO₂.

• Walking students through this 3-minute animation is very important and well worth the time. There is a lot of information in the animation, which can be easily lost when first viewed or when viewed by students without teacher guidance.
• It is a VERY powerful visual that gives us insight into our past and future. It also is a terrific example of the understanding that can come from combining multiple data types and sources.
• One of the key things to point out to students is that the rate of change in carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere is 10-100 times faster than ever observed through our geologic records.
• Tell students that there are many such terrific, reliable resources online that can be used to further their understanding and help them make sense of what is happening with their experiment.  The work that they do in this lesson will also help them as they begin preparing for the Summit that culminates this unit.

Student Guided Worksheets/Labs

• Virtual Sea UrchinLab (Bad Acid) – Our Acidifying Ocean
  • Website:  http://virtualurchin.stanford.edu/AcidOcean/AcidOcean.htm
  • Worksheet: Virtual simulation_Bad Acid student
• Puget Sound Exploration: gives current information on water surface conditions for Puget Sound
  o Website: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/mar_wat/surface.html
  o Worksheet available making use of the Department of Ecology's Eyes Over Puget Sound
• Mauna Loa Exploration: gives current information on atmospheric CO­₂
  • Website: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/
  • Worksheet: guiding students through Mauna Loa data
  • Worksheet: General carbon dioxide cycling knowledge
• Lesson 5C- Using Ocean Acidification Models to Make Predictions Choose one or both of the NetLogo simulation models and science readings to have students get a feel for how carbon, oxygen, nutrients, pH, silica-shelled diatoms, and coccolithophores might impact and affect each other and the entire ocean system.
  •  Download NetLogo onto your computer. Follow the instructions and prompts on the NetLogo website. The program is free, but registration is necessary.
  • These model simulations Ocean Acidification.nlogo and Nutrient and light.nlogo along with companion scientific readings and self-guided worksheets can be found in Lesson 5C   (*If you have any issues running the simulations, try putting all NetLogo program files and the model file into one folder on your desktop.)
• Earth4U: for more on carbon dioxide and temperature, Mari Knutson Herbert, a SEE teacher, recommends this and created a worksheet to guide students through using the site.
  • Website:http://challenger.org/climate/ccearth4u/ccearth4u.html
  • Worksheet : Carbon simulation team instructions_C_Temp_model
• Carbon Footprint Calculators:  here are three that are easy to use:
  • Conservation International:  short calculator based on several quick answers then suggest how much money to offset the student’s footprint. This calculator contains questions that students generally know the answers to or they can select the "US average" answers.
    • Website: http://www.conservation.org/act/get_involved/carbon_calculator/pages/default.aspx
  • The Nature Conservancy: asks questions more in depth about electricity, etc (students will need a rough estimate of costs of some things); can calculate for individual or household and has handy pie charts
    • Website:  http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/
  • EPA: the most in depth of the list but also easy to use and very informative
    • Website: https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

Activities (requiring teacher prep)

These activities are available for teachers to set up as an additional lab experience for students with “down time” or could be used as whole class activity (time permitting).  The activities do required prep and interaction by teacher.

• Carbon Cycle Jigsaw 
  • Pamela Schwenk of the NEOGEO Program at Kent State University developed an activity for students in grades 7-11 to explore how biological, physical, and geologic processes interact to create equilibrium in the carbon cycle."  See the NEOGEO site to download the materials.
    • For an adapted Lesson Plan that builds on students' network and Cytoscape abilities, click here:  Adapted Carbon Jigsaw Lesson Plan. See Lesson 1 and 2 from Ecological Networks for more information on network diagrams and visualization through Cytoscape.
  • Background Reading for Teachers
    • For more on Biological and Physical Pumps, see this article by Scott Nodder & Philip Boyd on Marine Snow (retrieved from the NIWA site).
    • For more on Geological Pumps, see this article by Robert A. Berner: "A New Look at the Long Term Carbon Cycle" (retrieved from the Geological Society of America).
    • For more on Biological Pumps, see "The Ocean Carbon Cycle published by Harvard Magazine in Nov/Dec 2002.
  • See also the Biological Pump Module from the University of WA High School Climate Science program. It is a great resource to teach students about Biological Pumps. An overview of the lesson's questions and goals can be found on the Climate Science website.  Specifically, the slides from the PowerPoint could be used for students to build a network diagram using Cytoscape. Again, see Lesson 2 of Ecological Networks for more information on Cytoscape. Also, the PowerPoints on the Climate Science webpage on how scientists use proxies are very helpful for both teacher background information and for teaching students.
• Ice Core Studies:
  • Lab Activity from the University of Washington's Climate Science program - adapted by SEE teacher Mari Knutson Herbert.  See the Climate Science page for more information and more resources.
    • Teacher Resource for activity
    • Student Instructions
    • Student Worksheet
    • Graphs for the activity
    • See the Ice Core Labs page of the UW for more student and teacher resources.
  • Background information for Ice Core Studies:
    • For background on ice cores and carbon dioxide: B. Geerts' website - Chapter 1: Ice Cores. Text cleaned up in a Word Document.
    • For more background information see the article, "The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification," by B. Hönish et al., Science, 2 March 2012, Vol. 335 no. 6072 pp. 1058-1063. A PDF can also be downloaded from many sites such as:http://droyer.web.wesleyan.edu/Honisch_et_al_2012_Science_ocean_acidification.pdf .
    • Chapter 12 of the textbook, BSCS: An Inquiry Approach (Level II) gives a nice description of how foram shells can be used to measure the ratio of oxygen isotopes to better understand the past.
    • Teacher Resource linking to articles and key words for learning more about long term effects and studies.

Data Collection in the Real World

• • Ocean Studies from NANOOS (Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems):
    • Website: NANOOS 
    • Lesson plans: in addition to data see lesson plans on conditions at sea, data activities, ocean observation, etc.
  • Global Carbon Atlas:
    • Website: http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/
    • Worksheets: Global carbon atlas -student and  Global_carbon_atlas_teacher_version
  • NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory's Global Monitoring Division  is especially useful when looking at data trends.
    • Website: NOAA leads to many other data access sites.
    • Worksheets: EarthSystem Research Lab_student  and EarthSystem Research Lab_Teacher

• • • Carbon Seeps - start with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. These are areas in the ocean where carbon dioxide swells up from the ocean floor are called carbon seeps.  These areas of high carbon gases and lowered pH offer insight into ocean acidification.  Students can use the internet to research more on these carbon seeps.
    • Ocean Data Viewer (ODV): http://data.unep-wcmc.org/  (lessons in development)
    •  NOAA leads to many other data access sites.