Lesson 6 – Global Ocean Acidification Summit

Description: 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.

 

Objectives

Course:  Integrated Science, STEM, BioChem, Marine Science, Life Science

Unit:  Ocean Acidification, Ecology, Biogeochemical Cycling

See the NGSS buttons in the lefthand panel of this page for an overview of the standards addressed in this lesson.  Also, please see the documents on the Standards Addressed page for all NGSS, WA State (Science, Math and Literacy), and NOAA Ocean Literacy Education Standards connections. In particular, for this lesson, due to the variety of experiments completed within classrooms, students will learn and do a variety of activities.  Because each student completed different labs, their summit presentation will be slightly different.  This means each student will not complete all of the listed standards.  However, ideally, they will complete 1-2 sets of performance expectations.  To give you a broad, big-picture overview, in addition to the aligned objectives linked above, for this lesson, here is an overview of:

What Students Learn
  • Scientists advise and provide materials for policy makers on important issues.
  • Communicating science requires proper visualization and well researched, clear, concise arguments based on evidence.
  • Network models are based on evidence – confidence in the model is based on confidence in the data.
  • Systems thinking is a useful technique for understanding and communicating complex situations.
  • There are many actions one can take in response to environmental issues – motivating others for concerted action often has the greatest effect.
What Students Do
  • Students collaboratively present their research findings and recommendations.
  • Students use questioning techniques to participate in whole-class discussions.
  • Students critically assess their findings and the findings of others to arrive at consensus for recommended actions.
  • Students use systems thinking to consider the dynamics of ocean systems and their connected subsystems.