Monitoring+Coral+Reefs+Using+Quadrats+(Nick+Lawrence)

Monitoring Coral Reefs Using Quadrats:

The 6th World Environmental Education Congress developed this module among many others released together in one pamphlet. The specific authors of this module are Carlie Wiener, Barbara C. Bruno and Jim Foley.

This specific edition released by the Environmental Congress was focused solely on the ocean and marine life. The overall purpose of the congress is to convene persons who have a stake environmental and sustainability education and have them share their knowledge and experience.

This question is somewhat redundant but the educational mission of the organization is to provide educational material for teachers to use. This particular edition has several articles about teaching about the ocean in the classroom. Also several learning modules are provided. The overall philosophy of the congress is to provide environmental and sustainability knowledge to educators and the public in general.

This module aims to teach a simplistic way to determine the “health” of an ecosystem. Students download maps of two different coral reefs from the Hawaiian island. They then use quadrats to estimate the number of organisms in each coral reef. The difference in the health of the two coral reefs will lead to a discussion about human impacts on the environment. Thus this module serves to increase students’ awareness of the impact of humans on environments. Coral reefs are a good way to illustrate this since coral reefs are going extinct because of human activities. This analytical ability can then be extended to local environments. This will give the students a chance to explore the environment they live in and gain a deeper attachment to it.

I think the module is adequately designed. In comparison to the sequaria module, I doubt this one will generate the same level of excitement and interests in students. But the idea of printing out simplified maps of two different coral reefs in Hawaii just won’t generate as much excitement. The maps are also not photorealistic thus lessening the modules ability to connect with students. However, if a large effort is made to use the quadrats on a local environment, I think the module gains much more strength. Something real will always win out over paper print out.

Yes. The main purpose of this module is to illustrate how human activities have caused a decrease in coral reef health. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the sea and are very important to the biodiversity of the ocean. Their destruction does not bode well for life in the ocean and humans as well. The preservation of coral reefs is an important sustainability issue. Thus this module teaches the kind of literacy the EcoEd Research Group advocates.

I don’t think much could be added to this module to have it directly align with the EcoEd groups learning objectives. The module is already geared to teaching environmental sustainability. Adding more to the module could increase the amount of information to be learned, but runs the risk of making the module taking up more time to complete. I recommend leaving it alone.