An observer on the seashore may make the mistake of thinking that all ocean water is the same. But the ocean is actually composed of several layers of water with specific properties—temperature and salinity being the main drivers of layering. Students will see how these two properties affect layering in the ocean.

Learn how scientists collect field data by being a scientist yourself! By studying a specific ecosystem, students learn how different scientists work together, what kinds of data scientists record, and experience the scientific process through observation and data collection.

How does an ecosystem recover from a major one-time insult such as an oil spill? As you will learn from this Discovery Story, the answer is not simple. It isn't easy to determine whether a particular area of shoreline has recovered from oil during a spill, or how to expect it to look when it has.

A kit you can create to help your students understand the impacts of the Gulf Of Mexico oil spill. Easily contained in a box so clean up is easy...as compared to oil spills in real life!

This activity explores the potential for climate variability and change to trigger more frequent occurrences of El Nino, and the impacts that could result. Students will access information at remote sites using telecommunications. Students will identify impacts by reviewing past El Nino events. Students will analyze the data collected and predict what the consequences could be if, as some scientists predict, climate variability and change could create a permanent El Nino.

In this activity, students graph and analyze data from sediments collected off the coast of Santa Barbara, California to determine whether this information can be used to study historical climate change. 

Students use foram “bio cards” to read and interpret authentic scientific data and build a graphic representation to unlock ancient history stored within sediment cores from the western equatorial Pacific. 

Students define terms pH and buffer. Students explain in general terms the carbonate buffer system of seawater. Students explain Le Chatelier’s Principle and predict how the carbonate buffer system of seawater will respond to a change in concentration of hydrogen ions.

Students explain how fundamental relationships between melting and boiling points, solubility, temperature and pressure can help to develop plausible explanations for observed chemical phenomena in the vicinity of subduction volcanoes.

Students will be able to compare and contrast the processes of photosynthesis and chemosynthesis; identify and describe sources of energy used by various organisms for chemosynthesis; predict what chemosynthetic reactions might be possible in selected extreme environments.