Reef data lab
Science skills
Four free lessons for ages 14 to 18
Four lessons built on thousands of real MCP survey records, prepared for teaching. Students find and fix errors, test whether protected reefs have more fish, track a marine heatwave, and design their own research question.
- Ages
- 14 to 18
- Time
- 60 to 75 minutes per lesson, plus project time for lesson 4
- Subjects
- Biology, maths and statistics, and ICT
- Hands-on
- A spreadsheet workbook, raw and clean data files, and a research project
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Lesson 1: Clean before you count
Explore a real reef survey dataset, find and log planted data errors, and detect a surveyor whose counts don't fit.
- Ages
- 14 to 18 (grades 9 to 12)
- Time
- 60 to 75 minutes
- You need
- The Reef data lab workbook, one cleaning log and data dictionary per pair
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Lesson 2: Protected or not?
Compare fish biomass and fished species in reserves and on open reefs, check the pattern at every depth, and discover that enforcement drives it.
- Ages
- 14 to 18 (grades 9 to 12)
- Time
- 60 to 75 minutes
- You need
- The clean fish file and the Sites table (or the workbook), one worksheet per pair
-
Lesson 3: A reef through a heatwave
Track water temperature, bleaching and coral cover through the 2024 heatwave, and compare recovery at protected and unprotected sites.
- Ages
- 14 to 18 (grades 9 to 12)
- Time
- 60 to 75 minutes
- You need
- The Reef data lab workbook (coral surveys sheet), one worksheet per pair
-
Lesson 4: Your research question
Launch a student research project using the reef dataset, with question ideas, a planner and a rubric.
- Ages
- 14 to 18 (grades 9 to 12)
- Time
- 60 minutes to launch, then 2 to 4 weeks of project time
- You need
- The workbook and CSV files, one planner per group, the rubric
The data files
Real MCP survey records from Negros Oriental, prepared for teaching: site names and surveyor names are replaced with codes, and some patterns are adjusted so the lessons work. Please don't use them for research. Each lesson pack also includes the files it needs.
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Bring your students to the reef
We host school groups at our base in Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental, for diving or snorkelling, beach clean-ups and tree planting alongside our conservation team. Every visit follows our child protection policy.