INFORM

Teacher Activities
  
Student Activities

Inform students that they will be participating in different activities in order to develop their understanding of coral reefs.   

Activity 1: Coral Reef Symbiosis

Introduce the concept of symbiosis by having students think about a time when they helped each other and it turned out they were helping themselves too. 

Then, ask students to research the word in Coral Reef Symbiosis and Symbiotic relationship(zooxanthellae) websites.

Prompt students to write a brief explanation of what they investigated. See Activity Sheet: Coral Reef Symbiosis (WCR_2).

Activity 2: Constructing three paper models that describe island coral reefs. 

Ask students to research the types of coral reefs in Coral Reef Animal Printouts - (scroll down to Types of Reefs section) and Types of coral web sites. 

Use the patterns provided in the websites for the group to construct the three types of coral.  For this activity, You may want to print them out, cut them into individual coral reef types, and distribute to the groups.

Divide your students into three groups and assign each group to create one of the following types of coral reefs.

Show students animation of how a reef progression from a fringing reef to a barrier reef and then finally to an atoll. http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/coralreefs/facts4.html

Prompt students to write a brief explanation of what they investigated.

See Activity Sheet 3: Researching the Types of Coral Reefs (WCR-3).

After students build different types of coral reefs, have them share with each other the important characteristics of each.

Teacher Background:

  

Student activity:

Student activity:

  • Break into groups and assign to one of types of coral reefs.
  • Read the brief description of coral reefs.  Use the website: 

Coral Reef Animal Printouts - (scroll down to Types of Reefs section)

  • Students complete the activity sheet during this part of the activity.