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.
https://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