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UMCES’ Chesapeake Biological Laboratory is proud to provide the online resources for use by families and educators.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION EXPERIMENT

The oceans of the world absorb CO₂, a gas in the atmosphere that humans breathe out, plants breathe in, and that is released in large amounts into the atmosphere from activities like burning fossil fuels. It is normal for the oceans to absorb this gas, but when too much CO₂ enters the ocean it can be harmful to marine life, particularly organisms that make calcium carbonate shells. Some of these animals include crabs, snails, and clams. Many of these organisms are also lower in the food web – they are the food source for larger animals!  If animals with calcium carbonate shells are harmed, it can harm the whole ecosystem. This addition of CO₂ into the ocean changes the pH of the water, and it can become corrosive to these shells. It makes existing shells vulnerable, but it can also make it harder to form new shells.

This experiment, and the video below, are designed to teach kids at home about the effects of decreasing pH in the ocean, commonly called Ocean Acidification.

Download the Ocean Acidification Experiment Instructions and Data Collection Sheet

WAVE OF PLASTIC MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULAR UNIT

Wave of Plastic Homepage

The “Wave of Plastic” is an education partnership program that aims to help Southern Maryland students understand the connections between actions on land, plastic pollution in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, and student environmental stewardship. Launched in 2019, the UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and Appalachian Laboratory, Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS), and St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) produced a new middle school curriculum unit focused on plastic marine debris. When teacher professional development was disrupted by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Wave of Plastic team made adaptations so that the five lesson plans can be taught in an at-home environments by parents and teachers throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Wave of Plastic is supported by a NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) grant.

Teacher/Facilitator Guide Student Workbook