My group consisted of Pavel Zaytsev, Cassandra Hannon and then myself Richard Woodworth, or what I’m usually referred to as, Woody. We went through many, many, different ideas for what we wanted to do for our final project and experiment. For our experiment we wanted something hands on and exciting, but also relevant to the class and valuable to teach our classmates. This was our criterion going forward for choosing what kind of experiment we wanted to demonstrate. That was kind of the easy part. We then researched together, as well as independently, a list of procedures and ideas we wanted to demonstrate. After collaborating on this list we had several good options to choose from. We thought of maybe making a tesla coil, as well as several other ideas using electricity and how it’s generated as the focus or even demonstrating how caloric energy taken into the body works. These ideas proved mostly too complex for our required time or not relevant to what we thought was important for our classmates to take away. We then decided to do something involving the ocean. We thought that such an important part of our planet, our impact on it, and the results of such an impact, deserved to be discussed. Once realizing these goals it was easy to decide that the Co2 we create and what effects it has on the ocean should be our focus.
We then had to design the experiment. Pavel was the main designer of our experiment and his technical knowledge, skill and engineering experience was incredibly useful to the makeup of our team. Cassie was always willing to help and I luckily have a saltwater fish tank so have general knowledge about what we would be working on. We decided we wanted to show Co2 affecting the pH levels in the ocean because it is a global issue and something we wanted our classmates to understand.
The design of our experiment was simple. We wanted to create a microcosm of the ocean and demonstrate how the Co2 entering the ocean affected pH. In order to show this we first needed to create an environment that was representative of the ocean and reacted to Co2 being introduced in the same way as the ocean. We did this by taking tap water and allowing its pH level to stabilize by sitting and equalizing with the surrounding environment. This was necessary because pH is affected by a number of different elements and changing one, affects each and every other one. It took us several attempts before we realized that letting the water equalize was very important. We even tried using bottled water but, once again even the act of pouring the water changed the pH value and it still needed to stabilize. So by measuring and waiting for pH to settle we were able to make sure the results we saw from our experiment were true. We then used baking soda added to the water to represent and demonstrate how the ocean has what is called a buffer system. The baking soda changes and then again stabilizes the pH value. This buffered water is our representation of the oceans environment. We then use Coca Cola to represent and act as the Co2 that enters the ocean. Upon entering the ocean Co2 has a chemical change and becomes carbonic acid. Coca Cola contains carbonic acid, therefore was the simplest and most relatable way to demonstrate to people carbonic acid entering our representative ocean.
Our procedure after creating the necessary environments was to introduce regular and measured amounts of carbonic acid and measure the change in pH after each addition. 
(Image shows pH Vs Co2)
In this way we could measure the effect of carbonic acid on pH and the ability and limitations of the baking soda acting as a buffer. We then could extrapolate from our results the way pH is affected by Co2 and in turn carbonic acid, while also demonstrating how the buffer system in the ocean works.
Our results were solid and sound. We repeated the experiment several times and refined it in order to make it the most effective. We did this by changing the amount of additives whether carbonic acid or baking soda, and varying the time we waited between measurements. We found by adding small amounts of carbonic acid we could achieve a pattern that was repeated each time we did the experiment. This pattern showed the effect on pH and the ability of a buffer. We recognized within the pattern that the buffer initially is able to reduce the affect of the carbonic acid to a point, after which, the carbonic acid began to have a much greater impact while still adding the same measure of carbonic acid. This is important because it shows that while we may see very little impact to the oceans pH initially, once it has absorbed its buffers capacity of carbonic acid it will begin to drop with much greater ease and severity. To put this in relatable terms it would be as if the air around us suddenly had more and more helium in it for example. We would be unable to speak normally and baritones would be quickly out of work. While this type of effect is funny to us, the same principal applies to how the ocean is affected. Organisms are not able to function properly in water with a lowered pH and basic life processes are impossible. Most importantly we found is that calcification cannot occur in low pH. This means that anything that requires this process to live would soon be extinct. Unfortunately for us a vast majority of the base of the oceans food web requires this process. Plankton, krill, coral, all of these would be wiped out very quickly. Krill alone has an estimated biomass of up to and possibly over 500 million tons. Humans in reference, have a biomass of around 350 million tons. This would create a domino effect that would change the world oceans forever. Massive extinctions would take place and we would lose many food sources we rely on from the ocean. We as humans have a habit of not recognizing change until it slaps us in the face and this ability for a dropping pH to sneak by was what we wanted to address because if were able to notice its effects, it’s already too late. We wanted to show the underlying issues with how we effect our Earth and this experiment was a very effective teaching tool and I don’t believe that anyone who watched and listened to us speak about would be able to take away from the important lessons that were learned via our microcosm of the ocean.