Coral and Chemistry

In this experiment, learners will explore whether increased carbon dioxide makes our oceans more basic or more acidic. They will learn that these changes are impacting the oceanic pH and the coral reefs, which need a certain pH to survive. This lesson provides a hands on approach of showing how human alterations of the atmosphere are changing the pH of the ocean and threatening the survival of many of its species. This detailed lesson guide is standards based, includes key vocabulary, discussion questions, background information for educators, and extension ideas. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]