A Night in the Coral Reef

On the WGBH podcast site, one of the videos I watched was "A Night in the Coral Reef." This video was located under the K-5 section of videos. The short, three minute video took you on an underwater tour of the coral reef at night. It explained that day feeding fish hide at night to avoid nocturnal predators. The crevices in the coral serve as good hiding spots for these fish. Nocturnal sea animals such as the squirrel fish, porcupine fish, and octopus come out at night to feed. Some of these are carnivorous and look for plant eating fish to eat. The video did a good job of capturing an underwater ecosystem.

Podcasts such as these can be extremely useful in the classroom. Students attention is captured by videos and technology. By keeping it short, it can be a useful tool as an introduction to a lesson. Many times videos can spark discussions from students that traditional text book reading may not.

These video-podcasts also help students take a "virtual field trip" in a way. With just the click of a button they are able to visualize and see for themselves many environments that otherwise they may not have seen. Students love learning and discussing new things- if it is presented in an interesting way. I think that these podcasts can serve as an essential tool to opening the minds of students to new and exciting places.