Corals on Acid: An Inquiry-based Activity Leading Students to a Better Understanding of Ocean Acidification Impacts

The objective of this inquiry-based lesson is for students to gain an understanding of how increasing ocean acidity can affect the calcification of marine organisms. During this activity, students: (1) design an experiment to quantify the CaCO3 concentration of two invertebrate skeletal samples, one...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oceanography
Main Authors: Casey L. Boleman, Philip M. Gavinese, Ellen N. Muse, Andrea E. Marston, John G. Windsor
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Oceanography Society 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.87
https://doaj.org/article/ba4a8c0e42364acca6b44cb7ce7c7a76
Description
Summary:The objective of this inquiry-based lesson is for students to gain an understanding of how increasing ocean acidity can affect the calcification of marine organisms. During this activity, students: (1) design an experiment to quantify the CaCO3 concentration of two invertebrate skeletal samples, one that has been soaked in normal seawater and another in a low pH solution, and (2) use critical thinking and discussion to evaluate possible explanations for the difference in the skeletal CaCO3 compositions. Our lesson focuses on exploring the activity before ocean acidification is introduced to provide a common conceptual framework to engage students.