The Effects of Ocean Acidification

Objective:

Students will be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using print and video to inform an audience in order to design a presentation that informs their community about ocean acidification. 

Warm-up:

Imagine you were creating a campaign to inform people in your community about the impacts of pollution from cars on the wildlife in your community. If you could use one of the following to inform your community, which would it be? 

1. A photo demonstrating the effect on a local farm
2. An article that uses numbers, graphs and interviews to talk about the effect of rising temperatures
3. A short video that interviews local farmers about the impact of rising temperatures

Which did you choose and why? _____________________________________________.

Introducing the Lesson:

Today's lesson explores the impact of ocean acidification. Have you heard of that before? (Yes/No)

These two articles were created by an international journalist from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and use video, photos, and text to explain the effects of carbon emissions on ocean creatures. By the end of class, our job will be to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the different resources in order to determine which resource we would use in a presentaiton to educate our community about the issue.

Introducing Resource 1: "Alarm Over Crab: Lucrative Crab Industry in Danger"

1. Watch the video in the resource "Alarm over crab: Lucrative Crab Industry in Danger". Answer the following questions attached in the question section. 

2. Read the article underneath the video and make a list of new information that the article presents. 

Analysis: If your goal is to get your community engaged and passionate about ocean acidification, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using this article? Consider:

• How well does the article/video explain what ocean acidification is? 
• In what ways will your community connect to the issue presented in the article? 

Introducing Resource 2: "Sea Change: Vital Part of Pacific Food Web Dissolving": 

• Open the resource "Seas Change: Vital Part of Pacific Food Web Dissolving".
• Watch the video, read the article, and answer the questions in the questions section.

Analysis: If your goal is to get your community engaged and passionate about ocean acidification, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using this article? Consider:

• How well does the article/video explain what ocean acidification is? 
• In what ways will your community connect to the issue presented in the article?

Conclusion:

Imagine your town could get a city official's attention for five minutes to discuss the issue of ocean acidification. Of the resources (video/photos/articles), which resource(s) would you use? Keep in mind what's important to your community and what resources you think will best engage the city official. 

Design and write out an outline for a five-minute presentation about ocean acidification that does the following: 

1. Explains ocean acidification
2. Outlines the impacts of ocean acidification
3. Connects the role humans play in ocean acidification
4. Connects the issue directly to your community
5. Utilizes at least one Pulitzer Center resource