In this curriculum module, students in high school life science, marine science, and/or chemistry courses act as interdisciplinary scientists and delegates to investigate how the changing carbon cycle will affect the oceans along with their integral populations.

The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and play a critical role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide through the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes. As a result of anthropogenic activity, a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration (to 760 ppm) is expected to occur by the end of this century. A quarter of the total CO2 emitted has already been absorbed by the surface oceans, changing the marine carbonate system, resulting in a decrease in pH, a change in carbonate-ion concentrations, and a change in the speciation of macro and micronutrients. The shift in the carbonate system is already drastically affecting biological processes in the oceans and is predicted to have major consequences on carbon export to the deep ocean with reverberating effects on atmospheric CO2. Put in simple terms, ocean acidification is a complex phenomenon with complex consequences. Understanding complexity and the impact of ocean acidification requires systems thinking – both in research and in education. Scientific advancement will help us better understand the problem and devise more effective solutions, but executing these solutions will require widespread public participation to mitigate this global problem.

Through these lessons, students closely model what is occurring in laboratories worldwide and at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) through Monica Orellana’s research to analyze the effect CO2 has on ocean chemistry, ecosystems and human societies. Students experiment, analyze public data, and prepare for a mock summit to address concerns. Student groups represent key “interest groups” and design two experiments to observe the effects of CO2 on seawater pH, diatom growth, algal blooms, nutrient availability, and/or shell dissolution.

The OER Implementation Collection is a companion to the UNC digital course enhancement collections. It was developed for faculty, instructors, and librarians in the UNC System by open educational resources (OER) experts from NC State University, East Carolina University, UNC Greensboro, UNC Charlotte, North Carolina A&T, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and UNC Chapel Hill.

The collection gathers reliable open resources and provides videos of presentations from authoritative speakers to answer the most frequent questions faculty ask about how and why to use OER in their courses. The OER Implementation Collection will provide a guide to finding and using OER for faculty and instructors who are interested in working with the UNC digital course enhancement collections and using other open educational resources in their teaching.

After using this collection, participants will:

Understand what OER are

Describe how OER benefit students and faculty

Find OER that are relevant for their courses

Determine quality and value of OER that they find

Adapt existing OER to fit their courses

Learn how to create their own OER