This lesson plan and activity teaches students about coral reefs and how they are being damaged by climate change.
Students will make a coral reef diorama in a shoebox.
The resource includes links to a number of easy-to-understand articles on ocean acidification and coral bleaching.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The student handout contains a variety of colorful marine life images for students to cut out and glue into their coral reef.
Students will learn how humans are destroying coral reefs when they release greenhouse gases into the air.
Additional Prerequisites
The student handout does not include any photographs of coral, so teachers may wish to have a few images of coral reefs ready to show the students.
Differentiation
Older students could make a dual diorama with one half of the box representing a healthy coral reef and one half of the box representing a bleached coral reef. Students could write a few sentences to describe the two scenes.
Art classes could modify this activity to make it a sculpting project. Each student could sculpt a piece of coral and then the corals could be collectively arranged into a reef. The coral reef and a brief description of the dangers they face due to climate change could be displayed in the school.
The resource provides insights on coral reefs and their importance in sustaining the biotic resources in marine ecosystems. Students can learn about coral reef ecosystems and how climate change has had a negative impact on them. Students will also create their own coral reef box. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
3-LS1-1 Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
National Core Arts Standards
Visual Arts: Standard 1 - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
VA:Cr1.2.2a Make art or design with various materials and tools to explore personal interests, questions, and curiosity.
