This animated video explains the process of ocean acidification.
Students will have an overview of ocean acidification as a concept and its impact on marine life.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video contains a clear introduction and animations about ocean acidification with statistics and facts.
At the end it outlines solutions to this problem that affects marine life.
Additional Prerequisites
Students must be familiar with the pH scale and marine ecosystems.
Differentiation
This resource can be used as a hook for a lesson on ocean acidification.
Students could conduct research on the effects of acidic ocean water on a marine species of their choice.
Support group: The teacher could pause the video and check that students understood each point, especially the one related to ocean chemistry and pH decrease.
The teacher could ask students to conduct an experiment that demonstrates how water can turn acidic and what happens to the shells of sea organisms.
Science students could use this tool to see the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean acidification.
Art students could study this watercolor from Jill Pelto which uses pH data from the oceans.
Scientist Notes
This 2-minute video presents a very brief introduction to ocean acidification, its causes, and its impacts on oceans. This is a short, clear resource with sources provided in the video description. This resource is recommended for teaching
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
