Outline: Week 5: Coral Reefs

week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
week 5
week 6
week 7
week 8
week 9
week 10
week 11
week 12
week 13
week 14
week 15
week 16

Week 5: Coral Reefs
Weeks 4, 5, and 6 make up the first three-week cycle of the course. Currently, you are in Week B: Teacher as Model Builder.

Using your team's problem statement, build an Earth System Science model. Look at the sample model and work with your teammates to build evidence for the relationships among the spheres and with the event.

Assignment

Team: (by midnight Sunday)

Review the sample ESS analysis.
Review the ESS Model-Building Rubric.
Using your team's original or revised problem statement, build an ESS model. Post your best ideas in Teacher as Model Builder space in the Classroom.
Read your teammates' analyses.
Develop a team analysis.
As a team, develop support for the relationships with evidence from your reading and research.
Submit your team's analysis to the Portfolio in the Classroom.

Need more detailed instructions? Click here

Readings

You will want to locate other resources locally and on the Internet to supplement these. Post the resources you find in the Resource Space in the Classroom.

Sneider, Cary and Richard Golden. Human Population Impact: Global Systems Science Student Guide. Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, 1994. pp. 29-39
http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/GSS

Sneider, Cary and Richard Golden. Closing the Ozone Hole: Global Systems Science Student Guide. Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, 1994. page 51.
http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/GSS

Web Sites

Sustainable Ecosystems Institute This report discusses the diversity and health of the reefs of Montserrat, the impacts of volcanic activity, and the potentials and hazards of ecotourism.

Jurassic Reef Park Click on Reefs and Global Climate to discover whether Jurassic reefs can help us learn more about the uncertain future of our global ecosystem.

Status of the World's Coral Reefs The World Resources Institute presents a "Reefs at Risk" analysis which classifies the coral reefs of the world by potential threat from human activities.

An Introduction to Coral Reefs Of particular interest in this site from the University of the Virgin Islands is a section on threats to the coral reefs including humans, natural predators, and weather events.

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