Curated OER
Ocean Scenes and Coral Reefs
Students explore plants and animals that live at various ocean levels, including beaches and coral reefs. They demonstrate their comprehension of ocean layers and life with chalk drawings. Students draw details of plant and animal life,...
Curated OER
Save a Reef!
Design a public information campaign to improve understanding of the coral reef crisis. Read about and discuss the biology and threats to the coral reef. The class creates a public information program about the problems facing the coral...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Fading Corals
Show the six-minute video, "Changing Planet: Fading Corals," and then demonstrate how calcium carbonate forms a precipitate in the presence of carbon dioxide. Separate your scientists into small groups to gather information about coral...
Curated OER
Coral Snapshots
Using photographs and a coral reef identification key, junior marine biologists compare changes in coral cover for a No-Take Area and the surrounding unprotected area. The data that is collected is then analyzed for richness,...
Curated OER
Coasts and Reefs: Shallow Marine Processes
A more thorough presentation on coastal systems would be difficult to find! Detailed diagrams illuminate the offshore, shoreface, foreshore, and backshore zones of beach. The sources and movement of sediments along the coastline are...
Florida International University
Pipeline to the Coral Reefs
Discover firsthand the effects of internal waves on coral reefs. Through a series of experiments, learners simulate internal waves and upwelling events as they make observations on the movement of water and other debris. They then...
Curated OER
Coral Reef Conservation
Young scholars conduct discussions on current threats to coral reefs around the world and write letters to conservation organizations urging support for coral reef protection.
Curated OER
Introduction to Coral Reefs
Young scholars identify locations of coral reefs, both in the water and around the globe, identify relative depth of corals in the ocean by observing behavior of cold and warm saltwater, and create models of coral reefs.
Curated OER
Who Has the Data? Monitoring Coral Reefs
High schoolers access data to characterize coral reefs. For this scientific research lesson, students access data and explain the need for such data when monitoring coral reefs. They will identify and explain three major threats to coral...
Curated OER
Corals & Coral Reefs
Young scholars describe a coral reef, how it is formed and its inhabitants. They explain the ecological and economic importance of coral reefs and discuss its present-day threats. Lesson contains adaptations for all levels.
Curated OER
How do living and non-living structures affect coral reef habitats?
Students create model coral reefs showing surface area and including examples of communities. In this coral reef lesson, students research and explore the functions or benefits from a coral reef. Students design a benthic habitat....
Curated OER
Coral Reef Community
Students explore the coral reef. In this food chain activity, students study the plants and animals of the coral reef and how they each play a role in that ecosystem. They participate in a class play to demonstrate the types of animals...
Curated OER
Gardens Under the Sea: Coral Reefs
Learners, with dive partners, explore coral reefs through scuba diving. They also explore radial symmetry and bilateral symmetry.
Curated OER
Architects of the Coral Reef
Learners discuss reproduction in Cnidaria. in this coral reef lesson, students describe five characteristics of Cnidaria and compare and contrast the four classes. They describe the reproduction strategies they use.
Curated OER
Monitoring Coral Reefs
Students investigate data on coral reef monitoring in a marine protected area in the Florida keys. In this coral reef lesson plan, students use online data from a marine protected coral reef to complete a worksheet about coral...
California Academy of Science
Coral Reef Habitat Match
Different animals live in different habitats, and each animal has specifically adaptive traits that make them tailor-made for their environments. This is true on land and in the ocean. Little ones examine how various marine animals have...
Curated OER
Oceans-Coral Reefs
Second graders investigate coral reefs. In this oceanology lesson, 2nd graders discuss what constitutes a coral reef and the wildlife that lives there. Students watch a video about coral reefs and take an online quiz.
US Environmental Protection Agency
Corals and Chemistry
After demonstrating the use of cabbage juice as a pH indicator, have your class experiment with their own breath, exhaling into the indicator, to show that carbon dioxide is acidic. As learners work, they also watch a video about coral...
NOAA
Deep-Sea Corals
Come take a peak at the corals in the deep. Science scholars discover the hidden world of deep-sea corals in the third installment of a 13-part series. Topics include the differences between shallow water and deep-sea corals, the slow...
Curated OER
How Diverse is That?
Compare various types of biological diversity in a coral reef and calculate a numeric indicator that describes the diversity found in coral communities. Your class can work in groups to look at the abundance and distribution data of...
Ocean Explorer
Architects of the Coral Reef
Coral Reefs are the focus of a life science lesson plan. Upper graders look at how coral reefs are formed, how the animals and plants reproduce, and the variety of ways that humans benefit from coral reefs around the world. Groups of...
Curated OER
Marine & Aquatic Habitats Activities - Creatures in the Coral
Students describe unique adaptations of organisms that live in the coral reef habitat, read various books pertaining to coral reefs and ocean life, and construct a wheel demonstrating the relationships between certain coral reef...
Curated OER
Pollutants on Coral
Students consider the effects of acid pollution on coral reefs. They brainstorm previous knowledge about coral reefs, examine a piece of coral and observe its reaction to acid and list ways we can prevent pollution from reaching the reefs.
Curated OER
The Ocean
Plant and animal life of the ocean is the focus of this science lesson plan. Young scientists sort a variety of seashells and explore why many sea animals have shells. They examine the shells, write journal entries highlighting the...