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What is CCSAE and what are its benefits?
MIT “Coastal Climate Science Activities and Experiments” (CCSAE) is a set of hands-on experiments, real-life scenarios, academic references, and visualizations that explain and teach the interwoven connections between increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting harm to marine, terrestrial, and human life.
The overall goal is for students to create the "big picture" of climate change for themselves. Through a series of explorations, students learn the mechanisms and environmental phenomena, piece together the framework, and ultimately become more aware of the specific harm to marine and terrestrial life that increased atmospheric CO2 is causing. With this understanding and knowledge, they will be better prepared to make a positive difference in a world facing the challenges of climate change.
This educational tool is designed to explain environmental problems that students have most likely heard of: rising sea level, ocean acidification, extreme and changing weather, harmful algal blooms, and changes to the Atlantic Ocean circulation. The learning experiences are quick, easy, qualitative, and impactful.
Overview of use in the classroom
This tool is recommended for students in middle school and high school (ages 12 - 18), though most of the resources on the site were created for the general public.
The pathways allow the educator using the CCSAE to focus on one topic and tell its complete story in 2 to 5 class hours. Individual activities and experiments can be carried out in 20 to 50 minutes.
Lesson outlines for each pathway are linked on each pathway page. The outlines include all pathway elements and a suggested order for carrying them out. Shortened versions are also provided.
The backbone of this tool is a novel framework that illustrates the cause and effect pathways between atmospheric carbon dioxide and harm to marine and terrestrial life (see image). The framework can be understood as a set of five cause-and-effect pathways. Each pathway documents a well-known environmental issue, showing how the problem is caused, how it is measured or studied, and how the ocean and related ecosystems are affected. The environmental issues in the pathways are:
Rising sea level
Changes to Atlantic Ocean circulation
Extreme and changing weather
Ocean acidification
Poor water quality and harmful algal blooms
Each highlighted pathway consists of text boxes connected by arrows.
The text boxes describe the environmental phenomena that are occurring and have been scientifically documented.
The connecting arrows represent the mechanism (physical, chemical, or biological) that is caused by the initial phenomenon and leads to one or more other phenomena. The number on the arrow identifies an experiment or analysis that students do to get a feel for the mechanism.
Cause-and-effect Framework
We’d love to hear how you used this tool in your community, how the students responded, and your suggestions to improve the experiments and other resources. Contact us at ccsae@mit.edu.
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