SciREN Lesson Plan Portal

• Name: McKenzie Powers
• Position and Institution: University of Georgia
• Contact: mckpwrs[at]uga.edu, Twitter: @mckpwrs
• Year contributed: 2021

• Grade Level: 9-12
• Georgia Standards of Excellence: SEV2, SMI2, SEC2, SEC5, SB5

The purpose of this lesson plan is to educate students about importance of phytoplankton in the oceans and how a changing climate (temperature) will influence their growth and function. This lesson plan will allow students to conduct their own mock experiment to analyze the impact of temperature on marine phytoplankton. Students will use the scientific method in this exercise. In doing so they will use their critical thinking skills to analyze a dataset and interpret what the results mean in relation to the big picture question. Students will collect the data, analyze by plotting in excel, and reflect.

• biological oceanography
• climate change
• phytoplankton

Lesson Plan

PowerPoint

Cell Count Document

Experiment Example