Coral Reefs and Math

This evening I stumbled upon a set of National Geographic illustrations depicting coral reef food webs. Students can scroll through the set of seven illustrations to learn vocabulary terms associated with each part of the coral reef ecosystem. The vocabulary is labeled on each illustration.

After looking at the coral reef food webs illustrations I jumped into another National Geographic resource. The Coral Reef Fish Survey Simulation is a lesson plan that combines information about ecosystems with a lesson about estimation. In the simulation students learn about four survey methods that students use to estimate fish populations. After learning about the four methods students use the Belt Transects method in a physical simulation conducted in your classroom (or another large room). The simulation is designed for elementary school mathematics lessons.

The Reefs At Risk project at World Resources International offers a Google Earth Tour of six coral reef regions around the world. You can watch the tour in the video below.