It's no secret that greenhouse gases warm the planet and that this has dire consequences for the environment whole islands swallowed up by rising seas, animal and plant species stressed by higher temperatures, and upsets in ecological interactions as populations move to cooler areas. However, carbon dioxide has another, less familiar environmental repercussion: making the Earth's oceans more acidic. Higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere mean that more carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean. This dissolved carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid the same substance that helps give carbonated beverages their acidic kick. While this process isn't going to make the ocean fizzy anytime soon, it is introducing its own set of challenges for marine organisms like plankton and coral.

Students research the acidification of freshwater streams and lakes, identify at least one of the sources, and determine how their daily activities contribute to the problem.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This module provides an intrioduction to acid and base chemistry. The Arrhenius and Bronsted-Lowry concepts of acids and bases are discussed as well as the pH scale and neutralization reactions.

In this video segment, the ZOOM cast demonstrates how to use cabbage juice to find out if a solution is an acid or a base.

This is a pdf of a presentation. It can be used to expand upon or introduce the topic of Acids and Bases within chemistry. It primarily goes over the basics but could be used at any point.

This is a lab followed by questions to help students understand how acids and bases interact. It also helps students understand how pH works.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate what happens when vinegar is added to baking soda inside a container. The resulting chemical reaction produces enough carbon dioxide to launch their paper rocket skyward.
Recommended for: Grades K-5

A link to a google presentation that covers the topics of acids, bases, pH, indicators, neutralization, and titration

This is a review of information that should have been learned regarding acids, bases, and pH. It is a series of questions followed by answers and explanations.

A car propelled by the reaction between lemon juice and baking soda has more in common with rockets and jet aircraft than one might think. In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate the power of rocket-propelled vehicles and how to exploit the force produced by the carbon dioxide gas. Grades 3-8.

It would seem that bottles of lemon juice and rockets have only their basic shape in common. However, as two cast members from ZOOM demonstrate in this adapted video segment, when baking soda is added to the mix, a plastic bottle can act very much like a real rocket. Grades 3-8.

In this section we will be talking about the basics of acids and bases and how acid-base chemistry is related to chemical equilibrium. We will cover acid and base definitions, pH, acid-base equilibria, acid-base properties of salts, and the pH of salt solutions.

Students play and record the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” song using musical instruments and analyze the intensity of the sound using free audio editing and recording software. Then they use hollow Styrofoam half-spheres as acoustic mirrors (devices that reflect and focus sound), determine the radius of curvature of the mirror and calculate its focal length. Students place a microphone at the acoustic mirror focal point, re-record their songs, and compare the sound intensity on plot spectrums generated from their recordings both with and without the acoustic mirrors. A worksheet and KWL chart are provided.

The course treats the following topics: - Relevant physical oceanography - Elements of marine geology (seafloor topography, acoustical properties of sediments and rocks) - Underwater sound propagation (ray acoustics, ocean noise) - Interaction of sound with the seafloor (reflection, scattering) - Principles of sonar (beamforming) - Underwater acoustic mapping systems (single beam echo sounding, multi-beam echo sounding, sidescan sonar) - Data analysis (refraction corrections, digital terrain modelling) - Applications (hydrographic survey planning and navigation, coastal engineering) - Current and future developments.

This course will begin with brief overview of what important current research topics are in oceanography (physical, geological, and biological) and how acoustics can be used as a tool to address them. Three typical examples are climate, bottom geology, and marine mammal behavior. Will then address the acoustic inverse problem, reviewing inverse methods (linear and nonlinear) and the combination of acoustical methods with other measurements as an integrated system. Last part of course will concentrate on specific case studies, taken from current research journals. This course is taught on campus at MIT and with simultaneous video at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Acoustics of Speech and Hearing is an H-Level graduate course that reviews the physical processes involved in the production, propagation and reception of human speech. Particular attention is paid to how the acoustics and mechanics of the speech and auditory system define what sounds we are capable of producing and what sounds we can sense. Areas of discussion include:

the acoustic cues used in determining the direction of a sound source,

the acoustic and mechanical mechanisms involved in speech production and

the acoustic and mechanical mechanism used to transduce and analyze sounds in the ear.

In this project, each student will be assigned to a group of three to four students. Each group will be given random character description cards. These characters will be treated as the first generation in a fictitious town. The cards will include specific genetic traits, skills, jobs, as well as reference if the character suffers from type 2 diabetes. Students will need to use the character cards to author and illustrate a short story about the fictitious town which follows at least three generations of the families in the cards. Students must also include pedigrees for a minimum of three traits as well as diabetes as evidence of inheritance.

This is an information sheet on the species, Acris crepitans, provided by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

This is an information sheet on the species, Acrobates pygmaeus, provided by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

This is an information sheet on the species, Acrochordus arafurae, provided by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.