This interdisciplinary activity encourages students to think about what a coral is, how coral reefs are formed, and the relationship between zooxanthellae and their coral hosts.

This activity has the ability for students to understand how to have a positive, long-term impact on both coral reefs and on ocean stewardship at large, by giving the students understanding of this organism and a chance to help save our reefs.

This activity can be adapted to a single day or longer, with the inclusion compare/contrast of other Cnidarians, math, and language art extensions.

This interdisciplinary activity encourages students to think about what coral reefs are made of, and how long coral reefs have been on our planet.

This activity has the ability to have a longterm impact on both corals and ocean stewardship at large, giving the students understanding of this organism and a chance to help save our reefs.

This activity can be adapted to a single day or longer, with the inclusion of art, math, and language art extensions.

Many organisms reproduce during a limited season. These patterns are specialized to aid the survival of each particular species.

But reef-building corals carry this pattern to an extreme, with nearly all the colonies on a reef spawning in a single night, and neighboring colonies spawning just a day or two apart.

Is this an advantage for the corals? Is there a way we can test this pattern of reproduction statistically?

This activity uses a chemistry demonstration to teach about the production of coral skeletons.

The demonstration shows students that under certain conditions, solid materials can be extracted from a solution. The source of coral reef skeletons, and therefore reef rocks themselves, is material dissolved in seawater.

The chemical reaction demonstrated here is not the same chemical reaction that occurs in the coral polyp, but instead is a demonstration to show that solids can be produced from dissolved substances.

This interdisciplinary activity encourages students to think about the dependence and detriment in the relationship between the sun and coral reefs, as well as the purpose of coral mucus.

This activity has the ability to have a long-term impact on both corals and ocean stewardship at large, giving the students understanding of how their choices, even in sunscreen, affect the reefs.

This activity can be adapted to a single day or longer, with the inclusion of art, math, and language art extensions.

This interdisciplinary activity encourages students to think about the current conditions of the Florida Reef Tract, and humans’ effects on this habitat.

This activity has the ability to have a long-term impact on both corals and ocean stewardship at large, giving the students an understanding of anthropogenic effects and a chance to help save our reefs.

This activity can be adapted to a single day or longer, with the inclusion compare/contrast of other barrier reefs, math, and language art extensions. This activity was designed to be used in collaboration with the 2019 Coral to Action Competition for K-12 grade students but can be used independently as well.