In this video, students will learn that carbon dioxide emissions have caused ocean waters to warm and become more acidic, damaging corals in reefs around the world.
As corals disappear, ocean biodiversity decreases, and coastal regions become more susceptible to erosion and storm surge.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video explains the structure and function of coral reefs with strong visuals, animations, interviews, and narration.
The pedagogy section provides suggestions for activities to pair with the video.
Additional Prerequisites
The video presents an overview of the symbiotic relationship between coral and zooxanthellae, but teachers may want to elaborate on how zooxanthellae are related to coral bleaching.
Differentiation
Students could research the types of organisms that live in coral reefs and make a slideshow to show how coral bleaching affects the other organisms that live in coral ecosystems.
Social studies classes could discuss the impact that coral reef destruction has on coastal erosion, storm surge protection, tourism, and the fishing industry.
This resource is a 6-minute video exploring the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on coral reefs. It is a highly-produced video with simple graphics and includes several high-quality interviews with scientists studying coral reefs. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
