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Easily used in any unit dealing with oceans, marine biology, and climate change.
Can be used in conjunction with lesson plans listed in the 'Pedagogy' section of this page.
The ocean has absorbed about a third of the carbon dioxide emitted through human activities, altering the pH of the ocean, reducing its buffering capacity.
Through the University of California, Santa Barbara, sea urchins are used to set up ocean acidification experiments testing how CO2 affects sea urchins' formation of their calcified parts like spines, exoskeleton, and mouth parts.
Comments from expert scientist: excellent discussion of real studies of the effects of ocean acidification on development of larval urchins. I would use it in any high school or college class.
To make this into a classroom activity, go to the [link http://web.stanford.edu/group/inquiry2insight/cgi-bin/vu-r1a/vu.php?view=resources 'Virtual Urchin teacher resources'] page. Here you will find teaching materials, lesson plans, Excel data, and three different slide shows. (Scroll toward the bottom of the page to find these materials.)
Additional classroom activity to go along with video [http://www.amnh.org/content/download/41766/606631/file/classroom_acidoceans.pdf].
