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Earth Science Curriculum

ScienceBridge Labs (professionally designed): 

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification is a phenomenon related to current global climate changes, and is becoming a major threat to marine ecosystems ranging from tropical coral reefs to the chilly waters of the Antarctic. In this lesson, students observe and investigate the mechanisms driving ocean acidification. The lesson and lab make connections to basic chemical principles such as acids/bases and the pH scale.

Socrates (graduate student designed):


Environmental Spices
1 / Daphnia Toxicity2 / Kool Aid Chromatography3

Graduate Fellow Nellie Shaul & Teacher Partner Lisa Yoneda

1: A year-long activity in which students design and implement a water sampling and analysis plan to look for presence of baking and cooking spices in local water supplies. 2: Introduces students to the experiment toxicologists use to determine how toxic substances are to model organisms. 3: This lesson introduces students to solid phase extraction chromatography. 

Golf Balls and California Climate

Graduate Fellow Johnnie Lyman & Teacher Partner Chris Everett

Students explore a deep-sea core taken from the coast of California and reconstruct El Niño signals as recorded by plankton. Using three key species (including one that stronly resembles a golf ball), students look at biological responses to climate recorded in sediment. 

SOS: Save Our Shells

Graduate Fellow Kate Hanson & Teacher Partner Rachel Stein

Students observe and investigate the mechanisms driving ocean acidification. The lesson and lab make connections to basic chemical principles such as acids/bases and the pH scale.

X-citing Chemistry: X-Ray fluorescence of deep-sea mud

Graduate Fellow Johnnie Lyman & Teacher Partner Duke Raley

Using fluorescent beads, students explore the use of light as an investigative tool in oceanography. Using this knowledge, they then analyze a real deep-sea scenrio involving changes in lead concentration off the coast of San Diego.