Saving our Coral Reefs

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Saving our Coral Reefs

• Presentation created by Janette Hill
• based on IDAs completed by
• Marty Thomas

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Whats Going on with our Coral Reefs?

• The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force estimates the
  coral reefs provide 375 billion annually in
  natural resources although they only cover less
  than 1 of the earth's surface. Although coral
  reefs offer many benefits to society, there are
  some negative trends taking place that scientists
  believe are indications that the coral reefs may
  be extinct within 50 years. Some of the problem
  seems to be a lack of awareness (I was unaware of
  the situation until I began to study marine
  biology).

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Whats the Problem?

• Society, by and large, is unaware of the
  deterioration of the coral reefs and the impact
  these events will have on our environment. More
  importantly, we as a society are very
  uncomfortable with how we can prevent the coral
  reefs from becoming extinct. Learners are not
  adequately prepared to help repair the coral
  reefs.

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Where will the instruction be implemented?

• This instruction will take place in lab
  environments.
• Important equipment in the labs include at least
  one 200-300 aquarium.
• Lighting requirements at each aquarium are
  approximately 700 watts.
• The lab will require several computers since the
  instruction will either be delivered on DVD or
  via the Web.

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Who are the learners?

• Young adults - adults (1575 years old).
• Learners will have a basic knowledge of coral
  reefs (i.e., the Great Barrier Reef is in
  Australia) and an interest in marine biology.
• Some preliminary assessment is needed to
  determine that the learners are capable of
  understanding biological terms at least at the
  high school level.
• Also important that learners are comfortable
  working in a team setting.

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What is the goal of the lesson?

• Larger course context maintain coral reef
  systems
• Unit visually determine causes of coral reef
  damage
• And finally the lesson (coming up!)

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Heres the Overall Course Picture
Course Objective Maintain coral reef systems
Unit 1 Visually determine causes of coral reef
damage
Unit 2 Use reproduction knowledge for coral
growth
Unit 3 Benefits of coral reefs
Unit 4 Reproduction processes of coral
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Lesson Structure
Lesson Obj Learners will list the sources of
coral reef damage (declarative knowledge)
Obj 2 Predator damage
Obj 5 Relationship between humans environment
Obj 1 Warming water impact on coral reefs
Obj 4 Impact of environment on coral reefs
Obj 3 Impact of humans on coral reefs
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How will the learning be assessed?

• Learners will identify the sources of coral reef
  damage (warming waters, types of human damage,
  predator damage).
• Five multiple choice questions
• Mastery is 4 out of 5 correct

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The Lesson!

• Attention will be garnered with the use of two
  aquariums one healthy, one unhealthy.
• Purpose The two aquariums are representative of
  a pattern of what is happening with our coral
  reefs -- our task is to explore why.
• Interest and motivation will be enhanced with
  video

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The Lesson (continued)

• Learners will practice throughout the
  instruction As the learner answers periodic
  questions throughout the video instruction, the
  system will initially provide hints to incorrect
  answers (i.e., recall earlier clips that showed
  the following). After several missed attempts,
  the system will provide feedback for material the
  learner can review for remediation.
• See IDA 5 for all the detail!

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The Media Used for Instruction

• DVD (institutions can order the DVDs online).
  DVD will include video and executable programs
  the institution will need install on local
  machines. The executable programs will install
  the simulations and microworlds.
• Hands-on practice with real aquariums in the lab.

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Evaluation Time!

• Experts will review the instructional list of
  sources for coral reef damage for
• 1) Completeness
• 2) Accuracy
• Experts will help to ensure the instruction
  includes all the possible sources of coral reef
  damage. Completeness review by the experts
  should also discuss areas that are not covered
  with sufficient depth in the instruction. The
  experts will also help to check the instruction
  for errors in the information.

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And More Evaluation!

• Small group of learners
• Randomly sample 2 learners from the novice,
  average and experienced groups to again evaluate
  the learnability of the instruction.

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Lessons Learned

• To be added Saturday afternoon on the fly and
  the formal report written at a later date for
  submission by Wednesday, 4 June! -)