Climate Change Happens Below Water
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Provided by: MIT Day of Climate|Published on: March 30, 2025
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this lesson from MIT Day of Climate, students will run tests to explore the impact of climate change on ocean acidification and the amount of total dissolved solids in the water.
- The lesson includes two main activities, where students use probes and applications to test the pH of carbon dioxide-infused water over time and the total dissolved solids in water samples from the school and around the area.
- The lesson also includes presentation slides and questions to assess students' understanding.
Subjects: Chemistry, Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: Robert Parks, Giovanna Romero Contreras, Ava Muffoletto, Selim Tezel, and the MIT App Inventor Team
Region: United States, Hawai'i
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Giving student group members specific jobs and roles gives them ownership in the learning experience and a sense of responsibility for the activity.
- The resource includes very detailed instructions for setting up the activities and using the equipment, making it easy for teachers and students, even if they have no prior experience using these tools.
Prerequisites
- Teachers will need to provide an email address and other personal information to access the materials.
- Each activity is broken into Day 1 and Day 2, however each day will take at least 150 minutes to complete. Teachers with shorter class periods will need to determine where the best stopping points will be to fit their class schedule. Also, teachers should note that in Activity A, Day 1 and Day 2 need to be done at least 3 days apart.
- Teachers will need a few materials for the activities that may not be readily available to them, including an Atlas Scientific pH Probe and Converter, alligator clips with socket-style jumpers, a micro:bit with battery pack, canning jars, a TDS sensor, and alligator clips with plug-style jumpers.
- Teachers may want to prepare a note or email to send to parents before tasking students with collecting water samples.
Differentiation & Implementation
- When discussing the harms of ocean acidification in Activity A, Day 1, students may benefit from the video What Is Ocean Acidification?, which further illustrates how ocean acidification prevents some animals from growing and building their shells.
- When answering the questions after Activity A, students may need support to come up with solutions to the problem of ocean acidification if climate solutions have not already been a topic of discussion.
- To make engineering connections, students can design a filter using what they know about nature's natural filtration capabilities to remove some of the pollutants they added to the water. Students can perform iterative testing to improve their filter.
Students can learn about ocean acidification, and how climate change has affected the ocean's resources and its ability to sequester atmospheric carbon emissions. Students investigate data from Hawai'i to understand ocean acidification trends and the effects on life below water. We suggest this resource for use in the classroom since it has passed our science review.
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About the Partner Provider
Day of Climate
Day of Climate is a new initiative designed to equip K-12 learners and their educators with concise, hands-on educational materials and tools to better understand climate change, its impacts, and potential solutions. This effort unites the broader MIT community to engage learners and educators in concrete actions addressing climate and sustainability challenges.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
