DOCUMENT RESUME ED 409 253 SO 028 087 TITLE Contrasts in Blue: Life on the Caribbean Coral Reef and the Rocky Coast of Maine. INSTITUTION Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. PUB DATE 96 NOTE 17p. AVAILABLE FROM Smithsonian Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, "Art to Zoo," Arts and Industries Building 1163/MRC 402, Washington, DC 20560. PUB TYPE Collected Works - Serials (022)-- Guides Classroom - Teacher (052) JOURNAL CIT Art to Zoo: Teaching with the Power of Objects; Nov-Dec 1996 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Ecology; Elementary Education; Instructional Materials; Integrated Activities; Interdisciplinary Approach; Marine -Biology; *Marine Education; Science Activities; Social Studies IDENTIFIERS *Coasts (Ocean); *Coral Reefs; Maine ABSTRACT Ecosystem contrasts between the Caribbean Coral Reef and the Rocky coast of Maine are the focus of this instructional resource. The publication, issued four times a year, explores single topics through an interdisciplinary, multicultural approach. The activities presented in this issue encourage students to consider the role of temperature, sunlight, waves, and tides in the creation of unique marine environments.Following background information concerning the theme, a 3-step, integrated science and social studies lesson plan is given. Objectives, materials, and procedures are indicated. Three reproducible student activity pages,including one given in both English and Spanish, are included. A glossary, answer keys, and list of resources conclude the issue. 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"".--11 te, e-,;;01;'-rf?' -7,14:44-,...V.i. -.-L.N-: -...:....,....,.;:-. ir't..- .. g-e-1 5 "IP-"....;,c/".-'7!`'....: - ..!1-11,1::.1-.:,.,...AILPf 5, . .L..:",ityfre'f.7.4"1-;:-'17f-'---.. ,,,,, ....:Jti--. ::"., .4 . .. -- , help teachers bring into You may request a Cover photo Art to Zoo's purpose is to /Vep-trotei. coral reef. coast large-print or disk their classrooms the educational powerof museums I lard and soli and other community resources. version of Art to Zoo corals. sea fans, spinwes, Art toZoodrawson the Smithsonian'shundreds by writing to the and algae are visible. of exhibitions and programsfrom art,history. and address listed on the classroom- hack cover or by faxing Above photo science to aviation and folklifeto create wide, boulder-strelm ready materials for grades fourthrough nine. to (202) 357-2116. intertidal :one at Pinkhant Each of the four annual issues explores asingle Point. central Maine. The topic through an interdisciplinary,multicultural algae-i.overed rocks nJ this ecosystem /('male organisms approach. with protection flynn predators The Smithsonian invites teachers toduplicate and the San: rays. Art to Zoo materials foreducational use. CONTRASTS IN BLUE: Life on the Caribbean Coral Reef and the Rocky Coast of Maine A travel poster for the Bahamas features the clear azure waterof the coral reef, where a diver encounters an electric blue and yellowangelfish. A Maine vacation brochure depicts gleeful children gathering mussels amongthe boulders, as powerful waves crash upon the rockyshore. These distinctive scenes describe two verydiffer- ent marine ecosystems: the coral reef ofthe Caribbean and the rocky coast of Maine. The striking contrasts present Maine coast was to great variations in water feathery legs. Rockweeds between these two dynamic several hundred feet above level between high and low cover the lower surfaces, ecosystems are the theme of sea level and a hundred tide. Many inlets become where mussels attach this issue of Art to Zoo and miles from the sea. When shallow at low tide, provid- themselves to these plants are among the many topics the glaciers fmally began to ing habitats where animals with silken threads. In the visitors can ponder in melt about eighteen thousand can hide and plants can tidal pool, ribbons of marine Exploring Marine Ecosystems, years ago, sea levels began flourish. Tidal pools form grass, brown kelp, sea stars, a permanent exhibition at to rise. Although the land wherever water is trapped anemones, crabs, and the Smithsonian's National rose, too, as the groaning and left behind by the-reced- small fish thrive. Museum of Natural History. weight of the glaciers was ing tide. The tide pools expe- With every tide and The activities that follow lifted, the sea rose even rience extreme fluctuations season, the populations of encourage students to consider higher. The waters flooded in temperature, salinity, and organisms change. In the the role of temperature, the basins and submerged the oxygen content. On any cold months of winter, sunlight, waves, and tides coastal river valleys, forming given rock, living indicators lobsters head for the stable in the creation of uniqiie islands from the high ground detail precisely where the temperatures of the deep sea marine environments. as well as numerous-bays water level rests at both high while the warming of spring and inlets. The rushing water and low tides. From top to brings pollack to hunt for The Distinctive Coast of Maine also carried away molten bottom, this tidal zone can smaller fish. In turn, people Over millions of years, lava and deposited it to form be from twenty to forty feet hunt the pollack. Humans Earth's crust gradually - lifted thick layers of sediment. in height. The living things have been so successful in and squeezed layers of rock These spectacular actions, (organisms) near the top pursuing the pollack that to fashion the mountains of combined with continual are exposed to the air much their continued survival in the Northeast. Eventually erosion by wind and water, of the time while those this ecosystem is threatened. hundreds of streams formed resulted in Maine's irregular, near the bottom are usually on these mountains and began jagged coastline. submerged. The Dynamic Coral Reef to flow toward the Atlantic Living things along,this Near the top of the Far from the northern lati- Ocean. About forty thousand rugged, rocky shore endure rocks, rough periwinkle tudes of Maine, the diverse years ago, massive glaciers many biological stresses. snails graze on dark stains of and productive ecosystem of crept along these same Rocks don't give plants or algae. Below them, barnacles the coral reef centers around stream beds, scouring and animals much protection. cement themselves to the coral, a group of organisms straightening them. There is summer heat, winter rocks and capture microscop- with a body design similar to During the last Ice Age, freezing, the drying force ic plankton with their that of an anemone. A single the land that constitutes the of air, and the diluting power coral is called a polyp of rain. The rockiness and (POL-ip). Its tiny, saclike irregularity of the coast leads body comprises a stomach 4 Art to Zoo Contrasts in Blue: Life on the Caribbean Coral Reef and the Rocky Coast of Maine NovemberlDecember1996 3 and a central opening lined the zooxanthellae use during wave back and forth in the with waving tentacles. Stony photosynthesis. Through water column, using their coral polyps use minerals this mutually beneficial rela- tentacles to catch particulates from the sea to build tionship, the coral and algae and tiny organisms floating supporting cups of calcium are able to exchange energy in the water. Other reef carbonate around their bod- and important gases with animals eat the coral or the ies, while "soft" coral polyps each other. The exact nature mucus that coats it. make flexible supports of of this relationship is not The coral reef ecosystem protein. Polyps generally live completely understood, but displays a complex interde- together in a colony, their without algae the reef-build- pendency of organisms. individual cups fusing ing corals could not secrete Some depend more on each together to form a large coral their massive skeletons. other than others and develop skeleton. As they grow and When corals become symbiotic relations. The die, new polyps form along stressed from environmental corals