Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities
Two sets of resources for teachers are available on these pages. The first set contains lesson plans and activities created especially for this site by our Coral Cam Teacher Advisory Group. The second set lists other teacher resources about oceans and coral reefs that we found on the Web.
1. Lesson Plans created by our Teacher Advisory Group
In June 1999 this Coral Cam web site was reviewed by the Coral Cam Teacher Advisory Group. This group of select teachers also created a set of lesson plans directly related to this coral camera web site.
2. Other Related Resources on the Web
Here is a list of lesson guides and related to coral reefs that we have discovered. The resources are briefly reviewed and grade levels for their use are mentioned.
Highly Recommended
A very highly recommended resource for middle school students which includes a number of excellent classroom activities, background information, and listing of related resources is:
Title: Coral Reefs An English Compilation of Activities for Middle School Students This is an EPA Publication EPA 160-B-97-900a The publication is also available in Spanish (EPA 160-B-97-900b)
This publication is FREE and can be ordered by phone from 1-800-490-9198 or by writing to:
National Center for Environmental Publications and Information
PO Box 42419
Cincinnati, OH 45242-2419 USA
Other Lesson Plan Resources
Title:VIMS Virtual Marine Education Center
URL: http://www.vims.edu/adv/ed/teach.html
Grade Levels: 8-12
Review:
The VIMS Virtual Marine Education Center web page offers several educational resources about marine life, focusing on the marine regions of Virginia. The site includes several high school level Ecology lab activity ideas, including the "Barnacle-in-a-cup lab," and the "Habitat lab report." The site also offers links to other instructional resources and directories.
Title: Smithsonian Institute: The National Museum of Natural History
URL:http://educate.si.edu/resources/lessons/art-to-zoo/c ontrast/cover.html
Grade Levels: Not Specified (approx. grades 5-8)
Review:
This site contains a lot of information about coral reefs that could be valuable to students. It also contains several lesson plans dealing with marine life and specifically coral reefs. Some examples of lesson plan topics include the anatomy of the coral reef, as well as comparison between coral reef habitat and rocky coast habitat. The lesson plans deal mostly with science but also incorporate other subjects such as Math and Social Studies.
Title: Smithsonian Institute: The National Museum of Natural History
URL:http://educate.si.edu/resources/lessons/currkits/oc ean/main.html
Grade Levels: Middle to high school
This site contains lesson plans that include activities related to ocean geography, pollution, products of the sea, and marine ecosystems. The site is developed in conjunction with the Smithsonian´s exhibit of the Ocean Planet.
Title:Neptune's Web: An Oceanographic Voyage in Learning
URL:http://www.cnmoc.navy.mil/educate/neptune/neptu ne.htm
Grade Levels: K-12
Review:
Neptune's Web incorporates a lot of information as well as various resources for students who are interested in Oceanography. The site includes a section called the "Teacher's Realm" which contains ideas and activities for the classroom. Activities can be found for all subject areas, including art. In addition to lesson plans, students can log on to learn ocean trivia and any other oceanographic information.
Title: Ocean Books
URL: http://www.cnmoc.navy.mil/educate/neptune/lesson/lan guage /books.htm
Grade Levels: 3-9
Review:
The Ocean Books page is a link from Neptune's Web. It is a site that contains several books that could be useful for teaching students about coral reefs and Oceanography. In addition to the books there are four activity ideas which will help you to apply what they have learned from the books. This is a great way to incorporate language arts into your unit.
Title:Coral Forest
URL:http://www.blacktop.com/coralforest/tguide.html
Grade Level: Not Specified
Review:
The Coral Forest web site is a great resource for information on coral. It also advertises its Teacher's guide on coral reefs. The guide contains references, coral reef-related organizations, etc. in addition to the lesson plans. The site allows you the opportunity to buy the guide. It also provides you with a sample lesson plan from the guide. The lesson plan is called, "The Edible Coral Polyp," where the students learn about the anatomy of the Edible Coral Polyp by building an Edible Coral Polyp model.
Title: International Marine Life Alliance
URL:http://www.petsforum.com/IMA/
Grade Levels: Not Specified (approx. 7-12)
Review:
This site is excellent! It contains an online teacher's manual on coral reefs, courtesy of CREST (Coral Reef Education for Students and Teachers). The online manual offers over 20 lesson plans dealing directly with coral reefs, and coral reef education. The lessons blend together to make a thorough unit that starts with learning about ecology and ends with exploring coral reef conservation. You must check this site out!!
We Want to see your Lesson Plans too
Have your classes conducted interesting projects about coral reefs? We would be happy to post your efforts here or to put a link to your site so that others could see what you have created. BBSR hosts many middle and high school groups who come to study for a week or two. Your project might be something that they were interested in. Soon you will be able to to see here what other schools have been doing.