Climate Change Ocean Acidification

Categories: Water Quality
Organization Name: 
Blue Hill Consolidated
Location: 
Blue Hill, Maine
Grade/Ages: 
7th and 8th
Teacher: 
Ms. Nell Herrmann
Classroom/Project team/names: 
Science class, Blue Hill Consolidated
Email address: 
nherrmann [at] bhcs [dot] org
Project Date: 
2016
Powerpoint / PDF / Zip / Document: 
Powerpoint / PDF / Zip / Document: 

Did you know that Earth’s oceans are becoming more acidic? Students at Blue Hill Consolidated School in Blue Hill, Maine have been exploring this topic with their science teacher, Nell Herrmann.

To learn about the topic, students were given small coral fragments and asked to conduct a simple experiment demonstrating how acidic solutions affect marine organisms whose tissues contain calcium carbonate. Those animals, such as mollusks, corals, coralline algae, and pteropods, are most vulnerable to ocean acidification.

Following the demonstration, Blue Hill students worked with the Friends of Blue Hill Bay to collect acidification data on soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria).