TEACHING ALL VOLUMES SUBMIT WORK SEARCH TIEE
VOLUME 1: Table of Contents TEACHING ISSUES AND EXPERIMENTS IN ECOLOGY
Issues : Figure Sets

Figure Set 3: How Shading Affects Photosynthetic/ Respiratory Balance in Corals

Purpose: Purpose: Students figure out that corals contain algae (zooxanthellae) and therefore are photosynthesizing organisms. With this knowledge, they can deduce what happens when corals bleach.
Teaching Approach: "Turn to Your Neighbor"
Cognitive Skills: (see Bloom's Taxonomy) — knowledge, comprehension, interpretation, application
Student Assessment: design an experiment

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS


Questions for Thought

(1) Turn to your neighbor and take 5 minutes to first describe and then interpret the data in Figure 3A (note: einsteins is a measure of light energy). Be prepared to volunteer or be called on during our discussion.

(2) Turn to your neighbor and take 5 minutes to first describe and then interpret the data in Figure 3B. Note that the researcher measured coral metabolism in a control (B) and a channel that she shaded with black plastic for a month (A). Using what you now know, interpret the data. If the corals in channel A were shaded for a very long time, what do you think might happen to them and why?

(3) Coral bleaching is a phenomenon that takes place when corals are stressed, such as when water temperature is too high for them. Corals are normally light tan in color and after “bleaching” they are white. Using the information you learned from the coral metabolism study, why do you think this is?