The Coral Organism: Links for Teachers
NOAA's National Ocean Service Corals Tutorial: What Are Corals?
This is great page for basic coral content. This page contains a sectional diagram of a coral and provides links to other resources.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/coral01_intro.html
Features: Graphics/Multimedia
Coral Reefs
This interesting look at the biology of the coral organism also contains a link to a lesson plan provided by the Shedd Aquarium.
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/fact_sheets.cfm?id=114
Features: Lesson Ideas
NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Lesson Plan: Symbiosis and Coral Anatomy
Students will learn the basic structure of corals and build upon the understanding that corals are animals and zooxanthellae are plants. They will be introduced to the concept of symbiosis through other examples in nature.
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/education/docs/
5_Symbiosis_and_Coral_Anatomy.pdf
Features: Hands-on Investigation, Lesson Ideas, Assessment
NOAA's Coral Health and Monitoring Program: Educational Modules
Coral bleaching, coral spawning, and the effects of carbon dioxide on coral reefs are addressed in these three lessons from NOAA’s Coral Health and Monitoring Program. Students use modeling, perform a chemistry experiment, and analyze coral reef data.
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cleo/education.shtml
Features: Hands-on Investigation, Lesson Ideas, Data Sources, Inquiry Materials
NOAA's Ocean Explorer Lesson Plan: Cool Corals
NOAA's 2003 Life on the Edge expedition searched hard-bottom habitats and deep coral banks off the coast of North and South Carolina. In this activity, students research one species of deep-sea coral and interpret results of a study of polyp behavior in this species.
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03edge/background/
edu/media/cool.pdf
Features: Lesson Ideas.
NOAA's Ocean Explorer Lesson Plan: How Am I Supposed to Eat THAT?
See how much blowing popcorn you can catch to learn why people are not filter feeders. Then use Internet research to learn about feeding strategies of deep-water corals. This activity is presented as part of NOAA's 2001 Islands in the Stream expedition.http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03bump/background/
edu/media/03cb_eatthat.pdf
Features: Lesson Ideas
NOAA's Ocean Explorer Lesson Plan: Leaving Home
In this lesson from a NOAA Ocean Exploration expedition to the New England seamounts, students learn about coral larval dispersal by studying simulated data from a real experiment.http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04mountains/background/
edu/media/MTS04.larvae.pdf
Features: Lesson Ideas
