The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and play a critical role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide through the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes. As a result of anthropogenic activity, a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration (to 760 ppm) is expected to occur by the end of this century.

When teaching the topics of ocean acidification, climate change, environmental science, and sustainability, helping students learn to critically assess print and electronic articles, such as those found in newspapers, websites, magazines, journals, etc., is of utmost importance. In this lesson, each student in your class will read a different short news piece on various engaging and thought-provoking topics surrounding the changing carbon cycle.

The purpose of these preliminary experiments is for students to become familiar with carbon dioxide (CO2). In particular, these experiments aim to provide context for the role of carbon dioxide in global climate change and ocean acidification. Therefore, students should come away with an understanding of the natural and anthropogenic sources of CO2 as well as the interaction between carbon dioxide and water.

The purpose of this lesson is to set the stage for students to begin a collaborative, systems study of ocean acidification (OA). Understanding that OA is a global problem that has positive and negative impacts on many groups in many ways makes it a hotly debated, political topic.

When tackling “big problems” scientists from different disciplines directly communicate and divvy up research into projects that best use available resources and lead to more comprehensive understanding. The goal of this lesson is to guide student groups as they plan their experiment and ultimately develop a class-wide, cohesive set of experiments that work together to answer the big question and their group’s individual sub-question.

The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to complete research on the topic of ocean acidification and to work toward answering their interest group’s experimental question.

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.

The purpose of Lesson 5c is for students to model systems approaches as they learn about today’s scientific process. Specifically, students will use mathematical and computer-based modeling to make predictions.

The purpose of the Summit is to achieve a deeper understanding of oceanic CO2 systems from the different research groups’ points of view. In the Summit, participants systematically question and examine issues and data related to the big question and articulate short- and long-term goals for oceanic CO2 concentrations.

Below is a compilation of general resources on ocean acidification and systems level studies. Some of these resources are directly used in this curriculum module, but most are for your reference. While we do not endorse all items listed below, they have been referred to us by educators.