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"Teaching people about the world in which we live."

Barrier Reef Lesson Plan
by Katie Gresham

This page contains, ready to go, all the background information you need to teach the Barrier Reef Lesson, including overheads, handouts, quizzes, and evaluation materials. You will need a printer, pens, pencils, transparencies, and other 'normal' classroom supplies. Please feel free to use the provided materials, share them, reproduce them, but make sure TerraX.org receives credit.

Objectives

1. The student will be able to locate the Great Barrier Reef on a map or globe.
2. The student will be able to relate three general facts related to the Great Barrier Reef (i.e., longest coral reef in world, 1240 miles long, home to how many different species of coral/fish).
3. The student will be able to describe or illustrate the structure and composition of coral.
4. The student will be able to state at least three reasons why coral reefs are beneficial to the environment.
5. The student will be able to explain symbiosis and give two of its forms.
6. The student will be able to explain photosynthesis and how it works in a coral reef.
7. The student will be able to discuss at least three present dangers to coral reefs and design his or her own strategy for protecting the coral reefs.

Materials

• Information sheet on the Great Barrier Reef
• Grading rubric
• Handout on 25 Ways You Can Save the Coral Reef  (one copy for every two students)
• Worksheet (one copy for every two students)
• Vocabulary List
• Story
• Optional (see step 8) Activity sheet on The Edible Coral Polyp (one copy for every two students) We could not receive permission to reprint this activity, so unfortunately it is not available in Adobe Acrobat Format.  Sorry for any inconvenience.
• Optional (see step 8) Activity sheet on Growing Coral. (one copy for every two students) We could not receive permission to reprint this activity, so unfortunately it is not available in Adobe Acrobat Format.  Sorry for any inconvenience.
• Chalk board and chalk or overhead projector, transparency, and markers

Outline

1. To prepare yourself read the Information sheet on the Great Barrier Reef, our pages on the Great Barrier Reef,  and the TerraX.org talk with Andy Dunstan.
2. Tell your class that you are going to read a story and that you want them to pay attention so that they can answer the questions at the end of the story.  Read them the story.
3. Discuss the questions and write down their answers on the chalk board or on an overhead transparency.
4. Have one of the students make a copy of the list as it goes up on the board and then give it to you for later reference.
5. Go over the list on the board and separate it into facts and questions.  Anything that the students are not absolutely sure of should go under the questions.  It is important that is there is a fact that the students are sure of, but you know to be incorrect, that it gets into the questions list.
6. Have the students formulate questions about the items in the questions list. These questions should be complete sentences and researchable.
7. Hand out the information sheet on the Great Barrier Reef and the vocabulary list.  Read the directions with the students.  Have them hang onto their notes till later.
8. This step may be left out of the lesson if you do not have the time or resources to do these activities.  If you include this step you may need to allow an extra day for this lesson plan. Divide the students into pairs.  Hand out the activity sheets and have the students pick which activity they want to do.
9. Divide the students into groups of two or three.  Handout the worksheet and the "Ways You Can Save the Coral Reef" sheet.  You may wish to hand out a copy of the grading rubric to the students at this time also, or to explain what they will be graded on.
10. Collect their completed projects.
11. Rewrite the list of facts and questions on the chalk board or the overhead, if they have been erased.  Ask the students how many of the questions can now be answered and put into facts.  Have them list the facts that they have discovered.  Move those items into the fact list.   Any left over questions that were not answered may be assigned as extra credit.
12. Conclude with a statement about how much they have learned asking if they had fun with the lesson.
13. Take a second to send us a note telling us how this lesson plan worked for you.

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