The Coral Squad Program
An #ExplorerMindset Educational Program Youth: 9 - 17 yrs old inspired by National Geographic Education
Crafted by Danielle Zelin
Why Corals? “Coral Reefs are a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet” Dr. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence The Coral Squad Program is a fun, creative and engaging 18 hrs of immersion in Coral Literacy; giving young people the opportunity to explore coral reefs, its importance, the threats faced and ways to protect & restore them when and where needed. The program uses the learners’ #curiosity to explore deeper, thus nurturing and developing their #ExplorerMindset; the core element of the National Geographic Learning Framework Use The Coral Squad Pilot Program Visual Story Map, to guide your educational adventure with the youth.
Duration of program 18 hrs - 3 hrs/session
Session 1: Diving into Exploration Session 2: Coral Reefs Ecosystem Session 3: Coral Features & Coral Bleaching Session 4: Ocean Plastic Pollution Session 5: Raising awareness & #WeAreCorals Session 6: Coral Restoration & End-of-Program Celebration
Session 1 Diving into Exploration ● ● ● ● ●
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The Coral Squad Portrait: self-portrait Natgeo style. Black bristol chalk/yellow bristol & display in the classroom Magic Parrotfish: A love story for the coral reef crisis (drawing or painting of parrot fish can be done to create an underwater wall display)
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Introduction to the Coral Squad Program What is an explorer? NatGeo Young Explorers Keywords of being an explorer What is Mission Blue - Hope SpotMission Blue Finding a local or global Hope Spot Campion (virtual or video)
Session 2 Coral reefs Ecosystem ●
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QFocus video: I am Coral Reef + ASK Question Process & share create question board. Alison Atchia Presentation: Symbiosis between the mangroves, seagrass and coral reefs (refer to resource pack) Looking into coral reefs -Coral Reefs 101 - NatGeo ● ● ●
Coral reefs; Ecosystem Full of Life Types of corals - Explore Hard & Soft Corals - Coral books or posters-virtual or live expert Create wall display of different corals + names (oil pastel or any other art techniques)
Session 3 Coral Features & Coral Bleaching ● ● ● ● ● ●
Causes of coral bleaching display (soft pastel or any other art techniques) Ocean Impact - Climate Change (additional resource)
Feature of a coral polyp Coral Bleaching with NatGeo Explorer: Erin T.Spencer video Local or regional coral bleaching video or resource person Collapse of the Oceans - National Geographic
Session 4 Ocean Pollution ● ● ● ●
Explorer in the Field - Dr Imogene Napper What are Garbage Patches - NASA Vizualization Experiment Where are Garbage Patches? Infographic Locating Garbage Patches on a 2D Map ● ● ● ●
Plastic Life cycle - TEDEd Video Plastic Lifespan Matching Game Planet or Plastic Pledge - poster display (global perspective) My Pledge activity - learners will write their own pledge and display (local perspective)
Session 5 Taking Action & Raise awareness ● ● ●
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Coral ARTivism: Use trash collected to create an awareness art about corals. A local artist can be invited to create the ARTivism. Message in a Bottle: reusing plastic bottles to write messages about protection of coral reefs/ocean
Mini beach/local clean up Sruthi Gurudev: Eco-Journalism & NatGeo Young Explorer Mission of An Hour in the Deep: can be contacted for virtual classroom or explore An Hour in the Deep website
Session 6 Coral Restoration & End-of-Program ●
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Presentation & practice of growing new corals with coral restoration experts. If not, a video of how corals are restored. How do scientist grow corals? Wrapping up & The Coral Squad Portfolio Certificate giving or any token to connect with the program is great
Our Educational Tools ●
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The Coral Squad Resource Pack
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The main educational resources pool is from National Geographic Education Resource Library:National Geographic Education: Classroom Resources. Those educational tools consist of videos, activities, articles, explorer classrooms with National Geographic explorers, encyclopedic entries and photographies. Other educational resources can be used and created to fit your local landscape Coral comeback - NOAA
Additional Educational Links ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Corals Reefs Coral Reef Food Web Saving Ocean Biodiversity Coral Comeback About Coral Reefs Save the Plankton The Ocean is Ours NOAA Coral Tutorial The Magic of Coral Reefs Speaking Corals
Photo Credit
The Ocean Agency
A bank of impactful ocean and coral reefs photos that can be used for free as educational tools, projects & classroom activities
The Coral Squad Program is a proudly endorsed UN Ocean Decade Activity
Inspire and Empower The Youth to be Caring & Responsible Planetary Stewards Danielle Zelin
The Coral Squad Program has been crafted with free educational resources to reach as many young people as possible. The program is free-of-use, copy, share and display. In any case, do not edit, add your own branding, claim ownership or for lucrative motives.
The Coral Squad Program