This lesson plan and supporting materials cover the importance and benefits of coral, coral bleaching, coral ecosystems, and how human activity impacts coral.
This resource includes the main lesson, which can be completed in a single class session, as well as three optional extension lessons.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The materials included with this lesson are beautifully designed and well researched.
The inquiry-based design of the lesson and materials will be engaging for learners at a variety of levels and abilities.
The teacher notes that accompany each slide are thorough and will help teachers deliver an engaging learning experience.
Additional Prerequisites
The activities in the second and third optional extension slides would work best in an upper elementary setting and require students to log in to Adobe with school email addresses.
The video on slide 10 of the main lesson contains text with no audio narration, so teachers with younger students may want to pause the video throughout to read the text aloud.
Differentiation
For a cross-curricular connection, this resource would pair well with informative writing in a language arts classroom, where students can harness their learning in the brainstorming and drafting phases of writing.
Before beginning the lesson, teachers could post each of the questions on a poster around the room and have students write and post their answers on post-it notes. As the lesson progresses, have students revisit and revise their original answers.
Other related resources include this lesson and activity about coral reefs and climate change, this game about animals and their habitats, and this video about coral reefs and human activity.
Scientist Notes
The resource discusses corals and how climate change has made them vulnerable to extinction. Students can learn about the significance of corals in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem and the food web. This resource is perfect for the classroom.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
K-ESS2-2 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
K-ESS3-3 Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
K-LS1-1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.