Ocean Acidification and Modern Extinctions
Summary
This lesson plan and lab activity is designed for middle school students and is intended to take two classes or lab periods. Students learn about pH, ocean acidification, and the connection to modern extinctions. The lab activity consists of designing an experiment to measure the effects of exposing seashells to acidic conditions. This activity differs from other similar activities in that it gives greater emphasis to explicitly incorporating principles of experimental design.
Context
Audience
This lesson plan and lab activity was designed for and used in a summer enrichment program for middle school students. It was one module of a general science and math program, but it could be adapted to an earth science or environmental science curriculum at different levels.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Some knowledge of the concept of extinction.
Some knowledge of the concept of pH or acidity.
Some knowledge of what kinds of marine animals have shells and why.
Ability to carry out basic arithmetic.
How the activity is situated in the course
In the summer program in which we used this lab activity, it was a stand-alone exercise that was not connected to other topics in the course. However, it could fit in an earth science or environmental science curriculum.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
- extinctions (modern and historical)
- pH
- ocean acidification due to burning of fossil fuels
- basic principles of experimental design (control groups, randomization)
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
- learn principles of experimental design (control groups, randomization)
- learn the connection between human activities and effects on the natural world
Skills goals for this activity
basic descriptive statistics (averages)
Description and Teaching Materials
MS Word file includes lesson plan (abbreviated script) and lab activity instructions:
Ocean acidification and modern extinctions lesson plan.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 2.9MB Mar17 25)
Assessment
Two possible assignments for assessment:
- Ask students to do a short presentation summarizing their results.
- Ask students to do a short presentation (or write a short letter) explaining to a political representative why it is important to reduce carbon emissions.
References and Resources
Two videos referred to in the lesson plan, on ocean acidification and modern extinctions:
https://youtu.be/J2BKd5e15Jc
https://youtu.be/A4V43nm5098