This lesson plan and materials include everything needed to deliver a highly engaging and important lesson about coral bleaching.
Students will learn through inquiry, reflect on how humans impact coral ecosystems, and cultivate awareness with a culminating art installation.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The materials that accompany this lesson are beautifully designed and well researched.
The teacher notes that accompany each slide are thorough and will help teachers deliver an engaging learning experience.
This lesson can take one session, but there are plenty of optional additional materials that will extend learning.
Additional Prerequisites
Students would benefit from understanding scientific vocabulary terms such as carbon emissions, carbon footprint, polyp, and zooxanthellae.
For the optional extension, teachers will need to locate a space to display the art installation and materials for the artwork.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular connections can be made for this resource in a language arts classroom where students use their learning to create persuasive writing, speeches, or public service announcements to persuade their audience to pledge to make a change that will benefit coral and mitigate coral bleaching.
Teachers could project the infographic onto a whiteboard and have students mark it up with reactions using dry erase markers to show what aspects of the piece are most meaningful, surprising, or exciting to them.
Corals appear to be the "rainforest" of the sea. The impact of corals on the marine ecosystem is enormous and it is worth exploring. Students will be excited to learn about the roles humans can play in restoring coral reefs in our marine ecosystem. This resource is suitable for the classroom.
Standards
English Language Arts
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
6.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
11-12.SL.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.
Science
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.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
7.LS2.4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
7.LS2.5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
HS.LS2.6 Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
Arts
Visual Arts: Standard 11 - Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
VA.11.CO2.HS2 3. Utilize and apply methods of inquiry such as observation, research, and experimentation to explore both familiar and unfamiliar subjects through art-making.
