Coral Reefs of Palau: Nature’s Amazing Underwater Cities

Lesson Plans

Grades3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Biology

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by The Nature Conservancy

Open Resource

What it is

In this virtual field trip from Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy, students will "visit" Palau and hear from a marine biologist who has studied the coral there.
Students will learn the importance of coral to the ecosystem and people, the biology of coral, and how climate change and ocean acidification are impacting them.
Students will view a 42-minute video and answer discussion questions to demonstrate their understanding of the video.

Teaching tips

Positives

The interview with the scientist gives students a glance at how exciting a career in science can be.
The visual aspects of the virtual field trip are stunning and will help students gain an appreciation for the coral, its beauty, and all it does for us.

Prerequisites

The virtual fieldtrip is available at this link, just scroll down to the video titled Coral Reefs of Palau.
Teachers may want to point out Palau on a map before watching the video to give students context.
The CI Sanctuary links are broken, and certain other links may lead just to a site homepage, rather than the resource indicated.

Differentiation & Implementation

Teachers can make language arts connections by showing students the clips of the coral reefs and asking them to write poems to describe them.
Teachers may want to pause the video for students to read text boxes that appear on the screen. Alternatively, teachers can read this text aloud to students.
After watching the video, students can select one of the species in the coral ecosystem and study its habitat, diet, and life cycle to consider how they may be affected by climate change.
To help with retention, teachers can make copies of the discussion questions without the answers and have students use them as guided notes to fill in as they watch the video.

From the scientist review

This resource introduces students to coral reefs. The included video features an expert marine biologist, and the teacher guide includes extensive links to additional sources. Wholly focused on conservation, the video rightly mentions climate change as a major threat to coral, and the teacher guide includes experiments on ocean acidification. This resource is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Subjects: Biology
Other types: Videos, Activity - Classroom, Worksheets
Format: PDF, YouTube Video
Language: English
Location: Oceania
Provider: The Nature Conservancy
Authors: Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy
Published: June 14, 2025
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · D2.Geo.4.6-8 + 21 more

Core

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards

D2.Geo.4.6-8Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.2Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-ESS3-4.Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
3-LS2-C.When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die. (secondary to 3-LS4-4)
4-ESS2-E.Living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions. (4-ESS2-1)
4-ESS3-B.A variety of natural hazards result from natural processes. Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts. (4-ESS3-2)
MS-LS1-C.1.Plants, algae (including phytoplankton), and many microorganisms use the energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen. These sugars can be used immediately or stored for growth or later use. (MS-LS1-6)
MS-LS2-A.1.Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors. (MS-LS2-1)
MS-LS2-B.Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. (MS-LS2-3)
MS-LS4-D.Changes in biodiversity can influence humans’ resources, such as food, energy, and medicines, as well as ecosystem services that humans rely on— for example, water purification and recycling. (secondary to MS-LS2-5)
MS-ESS2-A.2.All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth’s hot interior. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth’s materials and living organisms. (MS-ESS2-1)
MS-ESS3-A.Humans depend on Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources. Minerals, fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited, and many are not renewable or replaceable over human lifetimes. These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes. (MS-ESS3-1)

Maine Climate Education Hub

English Language Arts

SL.4.1Prepare for and participate in conversations across a range of topics, types, and forums, building on others' ideas and expressing their own.

Science and Engineering

3-LS2-1Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
3-LS4-4Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
3-ESS2-2Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
5-LS2-1Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
5-ESS2-1Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
5-ESS3-1Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
MS-LS1-8Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.
MS-LS2-2Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Social Studies

Geography2 (D1): Students understand geographic aspects of unity and diversity in Maine, the United States, and various world cultures, including Maine Native Americans, by summarizing and interpreting the relationship between geographic features and cultures of Maine Native Americans, and historical and recent immigrant groups in Maine, the United States, and the world.

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