This video from the National Park Service explains how climate change affects sea creatures in the rocky intertidal zone at Cabrillo National Monument.
Students will learn how ocean acidification and rising temperatures can negatively impact sea creatures and what we can do to take action.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video uses engaging watercolor illustrations to explain how climate change affects tidal ecosystems in California.
The video describes how ocean acidification impacts sea creatures.
An audio-described version of the video is linked in the video description.
Additional Prerequisites
It may be helpful for students to understand the pH scale.
Students should understand that carbon emissions cause ocean acidification.
Differentiation
Chemistry classes could use this video to investigate the chemical processes involved in ocean acidification.
Science classes could use this video to evaluate how climate change impacts ecosystems in nearby national monuments and parks.
Other resources on this topic include this video introduction to ocean acidification, this ocean acidification lab, and this video about shellfish and ocean acidification.
Scientist Notes
The video illustrates how inhabitants of rocky intertidal zones develop strategies to respond to climate risks on their marine resources and ecosystem. Although climate change impact is complex and dynamic, it requires testing, re-testing, and applying appropriate scientific and local knowledge to collect quality data for accurate predictions and prepare for future risks. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS.ESS3.6 Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity (i.e., climate change).
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS.LS2.6 Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS.LS2.7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
3.LS4.3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
PS1: Matter and Its Interactions
HS.PS1.2 Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties.
