Ocean Acidification Toolkits: Keeping Ocean Acidification in the Public Eye

NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program is developing educational outreach toolkits to meet goals outlined in the NOAA Ocean Acidification Educational Implementation Plan. This toolkit was constructed for the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) to provide effective strategies that expand awareness around ocean acidification (OA), NOAA OA research, and community-based actions that can help mitigate OA. The NWFSC OA outreach toolkit was informed by the Framework’s Institute Strategic Frame Analysis to understand effective approaches in translating OA foundational knowledge and research to empower student audiences with solutions (Bales, Sweetland, & Volmert, 2015). Consisting of four modules, the toolkit explains our ocean’s carbon cycle, OA as a chemical change over time, effects of OA on pteropods, coho salmon olfaction, and food web implications. The modules were piloted to three student audiences: junior undergraduates, 3rd and 4th graders, and 7th through 9th graders with effectiveness evaluated using pre- and post-surveys. Preliminary results suggest the audience exhibited increased knowledge of OA concepts aligned with the modules. The NWFSC OA educational outreach toolkit was adapted based on these evaluations and prepared for distribution. Continued development of toolkits and refinement will be based on pre- and post-presentation evaluations for various NOAA centers around the country.