High School, grades 9 through 12
High School Algae and Ecosystem Lessons
Algae do more than half of Earth's photosynthesis. Measure it in your classroom.
Real data from living systems. Students grow algae, feed it to brine shrimp, and measure photosynthesis, population growth, energy transfer and pollution with numbers they collected themselves. Every lesson is written once and fits many courses, so an AP Biology class and a marine science class can run the same lab.
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Life Science
Each card is one NGSS standard. Open it to see how it can be taught.
Grades 9-12
Photosynthesis and Respiration in a Closed System
A sealed bag of algae and brine shrimp that runs on light alone.
Grades 9-12
Carrying Capacity and Population Dynamics
Count a population until it levels off, then find out why.
Grades 9-12
Trophic Energy Transfer and Biomass
Weigh the producers and the consumers and calculate what moved up.
Light, Irradiance and Growth Rate
Change the light and graph how fast the algae grow.
Bioprospecting and Microbial Diversity
Pull wild algae out of a water sample and isolate them on agar.
Eutrophication and Nutrient Pollution
Add fertilizer, grow a bloom, and measure what it does to the water.
Nutrient Cycling: Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Water
Track nitrate leaving the water as algae grow.
Net Primary Productivity
Measure how much new living material a culture builds each day.
Microplastics and Bioaccumulation
See plastic particles glowing inside brine shrimp under a black light.
Algae and Climate Change
The ocean's algae and the carbon cycle, with data students can use.