Earth Systems and Climate Change

Explain how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact while investigating climate change in the classroom. In this series of 3 investigations, students describe why pteropods, marine organisms, have calcium carbonate shells that are degrading. They describe the effect of acid on calcium carbonate shells, model the interaction of atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean water, analyze data, and look for patterns in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, oceanic carbon dioxide concentration, oceanic carbonate ion concentration, and oceanic pH.

Curriculum Connection
While designed for a stand-alone earth science course, this series of activities could be incorporated into a high school chemistry course during a unit on solubility, pH, or equilibrium or into a biology course during a study of natural selection, human interactions with ecosystems, and changing ecosystems.

Time Requirement
Teacher prep, 75 minutes. Completing the activities, approximately 1 week (215 minutes).

Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS. Digital resources may include a teacher manual and student guide, pre-lab activities and setup videos, phenomenon videos, simulations, and post-lab analysis and assessments.

Performance Expectations
HS-ESS3-6. Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.

Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models

Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Students should be familiar with Earth systems and their interactions, how to read chemical equations, and an understanding of pH.