Bringing critical systems thinking to high school students through ocean

acidification research

An overview for high school teachers

Program VisionTo teach science as an engaging

interdisciplinary subject using research-based education and current scientific practices

Specifically – We help students develop the thinking and concepts required for systems science by using a

common problem that inherently brings together biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics and computer

science

Program Mission:

Cultivate cross-disciplinary skills for solving complex problems

Why and how we bring Ocean Acidification research to 6-12th graders…

• Crucial for today's students to fully understand– scientific problem

• with largely anthropogenic roots• with serious biological and societal consequences

• Inquiry based learning and experimentation that closely models what is occurring in laboratories across the world.

• Students can act as both scientists and delegates• Interdisciplinary • Addresses the Next Generation Science Standards

The Changing Carbon Cycle: A Scientific and Societal Problem

Common problem/story is ocean acidification

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html

Each of our modules has an inherently interdisciplinary, systems problem or situation that allows students to learn about the process of research.

For this module, ocean acidification is that situation. For your background information, the most important thing to realize is that the rate of change of CO2 in our atmosphere is 10-100 times greater than ever observed in our Earth’s history. What does this mean for the 70% of our planet that is our ocean and for all of us who are connected to this immensely important system?

Ocean Acidification: A Systems Approach to a Global Problem

• A curriculum unit that models current research and connects to the work of others

• Students act as scientists and delegates.• 3-5 weeks of class time.

Photos:  genome.jgi-psf.org/Thaps3, NASA, www.pnas.org/content/105/5/1391/F1.expansion.html

Broad Curriculum Module Goal:

Analyze the effect increasing atmospheric CO2 has on ocean chemistry, ecosystems and human societies

Prior Knowledge Needed to achieve this goal: Understand the basics of networks.

Lesson 1 and 2 of our Ecological Networks module can help with this understanding:

http://baliga.systemsbiology.net/drupal/education/?q=content/ecological-networks-course

EcoNet Lesson 1 - Classroom exercise:analyzing a social network

1. In an interactive group activity, students use familiar cell phone networks to learn about how information can be easily depicted.

2. Students pull together the class information to quickly learn that even when working in a team of five, it is still difficult to organize and analyze all of the information.

EcoNet Lesson 2: Motivation to use tools to solve problems

We know that systems thinking enables behavioral change.

The cell phone and cytoscape lessons help build systems thinking skills and can be applied in many contexts throughout the year.

When teachers complete the OA lessons with these two prior lessons, students’ learning is greatly enhanced for each of the following lessons.

Poster: Waters Foundation

To introduce the module – there are many possibilities• The news pieces in Lesson 1 serve as a great intro. Students

see they are studying a problem concurrently with top scientists. We all need to decipher the evidence in order to understand and make decisions about what actions to take.

• Or you can give them a scenario that they will follow through and build on subsequent lessons: You are a different person or organism. As a person, your finances have drastically changed (some for the better, some NOT for the better). If you are an organism: you have noticed a change – you’re not sure what is happening but you have noticed small things. For instance, previously you could “look in the farmer’s almanac” and predict life for the next few months. You notice your growing season has changed, or things sound or smell different, or things just “aren’t right”. We’ll use interdisciplinary science, collaboration & systems thinking to figure out what is wrong and what we can expect in the future!

Lesson 1 (Introduction through case studies): Understand the broad reach and accessibility of ocean studies. Gain the critical thinking skills to properly evaluate news media.

Students each read a news article and critically assess its validity using SAT reading techniques. Each student then contributes their article’s key “nodes” to help create an interconnected diagram. As a class they identify important points or nodes that they want to study in their setting.

Round Robin Labs:Respiration, Combustion,

Reactions, Detecting

Lesson 2: Exploring CO2 in the lab

A. Use inquiry to understand CO2.

B. Learn the basics of the changing carbon cycle and ocean acidification.

Lesson 1 Lesson 2

Option 1

Option 2

Open Inquiry

Lesson 3

• Watch Acid Test video – realize this is a global problem with many stakeholders

• Setting the stage to model a collaborative lab group

• Is this a situation that requires a systems study?– Many parts with interactions, emergent

properties, reverberating effects?

Does this require a systems study?

Trees and Plants (photosynthesis)

Animals (respiration)

Phytoplankton (photosynthesis)

Marine Animals (respiration)

?

Combustion Reactions

Balancing versus reinforcing loops

Questions for students to explore: Do you think this is a balancing or reinforcing loop? What about the CO2 loop in our environment? How can we learn more?

By the end of Lesson 3 (see lesson plan for more info)

• Students will decide which interest group they would like to align themselves with.

Delegates to the “International Convention on the Impacts of the Changing Carbon Cycle on Ocean Systems.”

Low CO2 Emitter

Interest Groups

High CO2 Emitter

Photosynthesizing organisms

Marine calcifying organisms

One of each group; duplicates as needed.

Lessons 4-5: Exploration of the effects of changing CO2 and nutrient cycles

Main question: What effect does the increasing atmospheric CO2 have on the ocean and its subsystems?• Model collaborative systems research• Analyze multiple and diverse data• Use multiple stressors

Options (while in their interest groups)A. Student groups each design their own

experiment

B. 8 or so protocols available for student groups to complete all with slight variations (see Lesson 4 Teacher Resources for more information)• Examples: Diatoms – various nutrient, CO2 entry,

water, temperature, salinity types• Shell and bone dissolution with sea urchin online

lab

– All have some online data component

Visible results of trial run conducted by ISB high school interns.

Differences in cell density across varying media are visibly detectable.

Flasks shown one weekafter inoculation.

Growth curves as determined from hemocytometer counts performed by ISB high school interns

Need for multiple & diverse data

• Daily culture measurements:– Cell count using a hemocytometer– OD 600 reading/Fluorometer reading

(depending on what technology is available)

– Pigment description– Pigment extraction experiment

• Chromatography

Chromatogram from Henderson State Univ. http://198.16.16.43/content.aspx?id=7261

Example of experiment design

5g of dry ice were used to stabilize CO2 levels at approximately 2000 ppm. pH of seawater dropped from 8.0 to 6.5 overnight. Shells left in seawater lost 2% of their mass over 3 days.

NetLogo / Java simulation for generating hypotheses.

Supplement their experiment with online data component.

• Bad Acid: Sea Urchin Simulation• C-MORE• WA State Department of Ecology (Eyes

over Puget Sound)• Multiple in situ sensors• Ice Core studies• Mesocosm studies• Many NOAA resources• Carbon footprint calculators

• In addition to completing their own experiment, students will explore an online data component.

• Some experiments are more technical than others, so the groups with less time intensive experiments may complete the majority of the online portions. Jigsawing the activities is a good option:– Ice Core Exploration– Mesocosms– Eyes over Puget Sound– Students in the Marine Calcifying group should also

complete the Online Stanford Sea Urchin – Acid Ocean activity: http://virtualurchin.stanford.edu/AcidOcean/AcidOcean.htm

Once students have their data

• Help them loop back to all they have learned. They should begin stepping back to make a map with connections between all of the interacting parts. Help them understand the subsystem they explored. Then have them step back to connect this to the entire system as they begin to prepare for their summit.

• The DRAFT figures on the following slides may be used to help them see the positive and negative impact of various parts in this system.

Atmospheric CO2 Level

Ecosystem Services

CO2 Absorbed by Ocean

Nutrients Higher Trophic Level Fish Dependent on Marine Calcifiers

Fisheries

Reef Tourism

CO2 Polluting NationsDeveloping Island Nation

Economies

Marine Calcifying Organisms

Diatoms

Oxygen

Carbonic Acid

Calcium Carbonate

Atmospheric CO2 Level

Ecosystem Services

CO2 Absorbed by Ocean

Nutrients Higher Trophic Level Fish Dependent on Marine Calcifiers

Fisheries

Reef Tourism

CO2 Polluting NationsDeveloping Island Nation

Economies

Marine Calcifying Organisms

Diatoms

Oxygen

Carbonic Acid

Calcium Carbonate

+

+

+ + +

- - -

-

-

--

-

--

Diatoms

Atmospheric CO2 Level

CO2 Absorbed by Ocean

Light

Temperature

NitrogenPhosphorusSilica

Winter Storms/Depth of

Mixing

Oxygen

Zooplankton

+ ++

+ + +

+

-- -

-

-- -

Lesson 6:Mock Summit

• Research summits, position statements, etc.

• Each group presents for 2 minutes, others take notes only

• Questioning protocol

Lesson 6 – Mock Summit

• Each group presents for 2 minutes, others take notes only– Poster, lab report, powerpoint?– What interest group, research report, data

collected, experimental data that supports position, future next steps for your research

– Recommendations for future research– Policy recommendations for individuals, as a

member of the interest group, for all others

Delegates reconvene

• Discussion of findings– Emphasis placed on the impact on the given

network. – Recommendations crafted for scientists,

politicians and people across the world. – Students reflect on unanswered questions and

on what their individual roles in the networks they’ve studied are.

• How they might change their actions in order to impact the network?

• What does their final, class experimental network look like?

Flow of module

Please complete both the pre and post assessments. We would appreciate any copies.

• Hard copies available online• Or use our survey monkey

– Preassessment:  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XKSWTML

– Postassessment:  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X8VSZJS

Attn: Claudia Ludwig, 401 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109

Assessment results elucidate emphasis

• Incorporating interest groups leads to passionate and global perspectives– No interest group = decreased passion and perspective

• Incorporating systems level emphasis = great gains– No systems emphasis = gain in general scientific thinking without

systems. The difference is that students do not gain understanding in coupled factors, need for multiple data types or the importance of modeling if a systems emphasis is not used.

• If cell phone lessons were completed– Students focus more on reverberating effects and tend to see the big

picture. They also articulate these effects and views more fully during the summit when they have completed the cell phone lessons 1 and 2.

Anecdotal Student Comments

• Students are engaged and learn a tremendous amount during this module. Here are a couple of student comments:– “This was the most fun I have ever had in a

science class.”– “I wish we had more time for this.”

Thanks for your interest!

• Please let us know if you would like to participate more in our program and/or if you have any feedback!

• From the OA Curriculum team…

We thank NSF (OCF 0928561) and NIH/NIGMS for leveraged dissemination.

Please see http://baliga.systemsbiology.net/ for more information.