Ocean Acidification

Lab Brief #4

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Living things break the rules of non-living things — find the rule they break.

What you'll learn

About a quarter of the carbon dioxide we release dissolves into the sea, forming carbonic acid and lowering ocean pH. That makes it harder for corals, molluscs and some plankton to build their calcium carbonate shells.

Key words

carbonic acid
The weak acid formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water.
calcium carbonate
The mineral corals and shellfish use to build shells and skeletons.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: what will happen to the plant if you change the water?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

universal indicator
straws
beakers
chalk
vinegar
balance

Get ready

⚠️ Safety first

Blow out through the straw only, never suck — and use a fresh straw per person.
Wear eye protection when handling vinegar and rinse splashes at once.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "carbonic acid" and "calcium carbonate" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Blow through a straw into water with universal indicator and record the colour change. Then leave a piece of chalk in vinegar and in water for a day and compare the mass lost from each.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Dissolving carbon dioxide in seawater makes it:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Ocean acidification most directly harms organisms that build shells from:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🦠 You have more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Cause, Correlation and Climate Data All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is why plants grow toward windows and why scabs form.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Watch a plant or pet for 5 minutes today and write down what you noticed.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

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