Exploring the Coral Reef: Learn about Oceans for Kids - FreeSchool
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Come learn about the amazing creatures that inhabit the coral reefs and how to protect them! We'll see sharks and sea turtles, parrotfish, eels, octopus, clownfish, anemone and more in this fun, kid-friendly adventure full of facts about the coral reef. FreeSchool is great for kids! Have you ever wondered what coral is made of? Or where the sand on the beach comes from? Why don't clownfish get stung when they go in the sea anemone? Come find out! Subscribe to FreeSchool: https://www.youtube.com/user/watchfreeschool?sub_confirmation=1 Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watchFreeSchool Check our our companion channel, FreeSchool Mom! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTcEtHRQhqiCZIIb77LyDmA And our NEW channel for little ones, FreeSchool Early Birds! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3OV62x86XHwaqsxLsuy8dA Music: Jaunty Gumption, Music for Manatees, Sneaky Snitch, Call to Adventure, The Other Side of the Door, Hidden Agenda - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Comments
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Free school is so rude about how we like to play with sand
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The song at the beginning... what is it? I've heard it somewhere... gah
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i was in school and i was watching this and i fell asleep ned a better voice
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I'm in 3 grade this is awsome
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this is stupid f trump
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Beautiful!
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Nice video. Also checkout a great initiative by Mr Rutherford (Elementary School teacher in Champaign,IL) who was in the local news recently.
Ecosystem project gives students hands-on learning experience http://bit.ly/2cdoPVV -
This is just perfect for teaching - clear voice, excellent text - great exemplar text for teaching information texts, the language is appropriately academic in nature while reaching young learners or early ESL learners - thank you!! My ESL students (Y3-5 refugees) have done 'Finding Nemo' as a narrative, and are now exploring science/information text through the reef ecosystem and the problems that exist now with taking clownfish from the reefs to sell in pet shops. This video captivated them and will be great to unpack and explore for language structures and features, as well as the series messages delivered in a 'you can be part of the solution' way. Thank you so much.
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Transcript for students :-) Coral reefs are only found in shallow tropical seas. They may look like colourful rocks, or even plants, but coral is really an animal.
Coral is built by polyps. Polyps are very small creatures that are related to jellyfish. Unlike the jellyfish, which propel themselves around through the water, coral are stationary. They grow together in a colony called a coral head. A small piece of coral may be made from hundreds of polyps. A bigger one may have thousands.
Hard corals create the reef by secreting calcium carbonate, or limestone, a type of rock which gradually builds up into a solid structure. Coral grows slowly, only a few centimetres a year. It can take hundreds of years to form larges piece like this.
Of course, not all coral is hard. Some types are soft. They may look like fans, feathers, or bushes, but once again, it is really a colony of tiny animals living together.
When many corals grow close together, it’s called a reef. Reefs provide very important habitat for fish and other sea creatures. Coral provides shelter for little fish: a place to hide!
That many small fish in one place attracts big fish, which, in turn, attracts big predators. Sharks. This nurse shark is unusually active for the daytime. Usually a nurse shark will hide under ledges and crevasses of the reef and come out at night to eat dormant fish that are hiding in the coral.
Nurse sharks are slow moving bottom dwellers. And, for the most part, harmless to humans, although they can grow up to 14 feet, more than 4 metres, in length. They’re strong jaws allow them to crush shellfish and even coral if need be. But they prefer to eat shrimp, fish and squid.
The reef also provides a place for algae and sponges to grow. This provides food for a variety of creatures. For example, the sea turtle. The hawks bill sea turtle, like most other sea turtles, is endangered. Hunted for their meat and their shells, trapped in commercial fishing nets to drown, and sickened by pollution, their populations are declining.
These turtles rely on the food that grows on the coral reef. And the reef, in turn, relies on the turtles. It’s a partnership that benefits both creatures. The turtles get a reliable source of food. The reef system gets a less obvious advantage. Without the turtles coming to eat the algae and sponges, they would overgrow the reef, preventing the coral from growing and expanding.
With lowered turtle populations in the oceans worldwide, the health of coral reef systems will suffer. It is important for people to do our best to protect these peaceful reptiles, not just for their sake, but the health of the entire coral ecosystem.
Turtles and coral aren’t the only partners you can find i=on the reef. Sea anemones are another animal that seems like a plant. Relative of both coral polyps and jellyfish, anemones have their own partner to help make life easier. Clownfish.
Although it may not look like it, anemones are predators. They have stinging cells in their tentacles that allows them to paralyse their prey, usually small fish or shrimp, and then move them towards their mouth.
Clownfish escape their sting by covering themselves in a protective layer of mucus. By hiding inside the anemone, clownfish are protected from predators that don’t want to be hurt by the anemone. But what does the anemone get out of this, you may ask. Well, the little clownfish can chase away butterfly fish that would eat the anemone. And they can also clean the anemone of parasites and bits of food that the anemone has no way of cleaning itself.
There’s one more unusual pairing that we’re going to talk about today. Can you guess what parrotfish and beaches have to do with each other?
Parrotfish are a distinctive family of fish with a tough bony beak that’s so strong that they can bite through rock and coral. They do this so that they can eat the coral polyps and algae inside. The coral is ground and all the edible parts are digested until only the limestone remains. Then the parrotfish has to get rid of all the crushed limestone. And, there’s only one way to do that. The parrotfish will excrete, or poop out, the limestone which has been crushed into a fine sand. In this way, a single parrotfish can produce 200lbs, or 90kg, of sand every year. You heard that right. The next time you bury you toes in soft white sand at the beach, just remember, you’re making castles with fish poop.
Coral reefs are sometimes called the rainforests of the sea. Though they cover only a tiny area of the ocean, they provide a habitat for a quarter of ocean animals.
Unfortunately, the coral reef ecosystem is a fragile one. The delicate balance between the coral, algae, fish and algae that live there is a delicate one that can be easily disrupted. Over fishing by humans, pollution, and warmer temperatures have all put the worlds coral reefs at risk. Right now, more than half of the world’s reef systems are in danger of destruction. And, if nothing changes, then within 15 years, nearly all the coral in the world will be in danger of dying and disappearing.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help protect coral reefs. Be careful not to waste water or pour chemicals down your drain since, eventually, the water you use will reach the ocean and can increase pollution. Pick up trash that you see on the ground and recycle what you can so garbage won’t find its way into the water. Most importantly, make sure people know that you want to protect coral reefs so that when we make decisions about how to take care of our world, we will make choices that will protect the reefs. -
but its cute
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her voice sounds funny
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it is good
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this is an educated vid
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Cool vid
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Who is speaking in this video? Very familiar voice!
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I love the sea
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the video was really good and awesome and my favorite animal is the sea turtle. yazzy
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We watch your vids every day:)
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dislike it was boring
9m 22sLenght
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