This article explores the hardiness of northern star coral, the environmental challenges that corals are dealing with worldwide, and why many researchers are focusing on the northern star coral.
Students will learn that northern star corals can obtain food in multiple ways, ocean acidification and heat waves are hazardous to many corals worldwide, and researchers are studying northern star coral to boost the climate resilience of other coral species.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The article has an overall tone of hope, which will inspire students.
This article explains how coral bleaching happens and why it matters.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand how climate change contributes to ocean acidification and ocean warming.
It may be beneficial if students understand the importance of coral and the ecosystem services it provides.
Differentiation
Students can use this article for an informative essay on climate resilience research in the United States.
This article can fit within a larger unit on how humans impact the environment in various ways.
This article can enhance a classroom discussion on how the average ocean pH has changed since the Industrial Revolution.
This article can support a lesson on ocean ecosystems and how they're impacted by human activity.
Scientist Notes
Corals are an often-used indication of ocean health. This resource from NOAA explains how with excellent information and citations. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
CCC.Stability and Change: For both designed and natural systems, conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates of change are critical elements to consider and understand.
HS-CCC-Stability and Change.1. Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-5 Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.5.9-12 Evaluate how political and economic decisions throughout time have influenced cultural and environmental characteristics of various places and regions.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
