Lesson 3 - LED Strip: Coral Home Builder
1. Engage: Why Coral Reefs Come In Many Colors?
Imagine diving into a sunny ocean bay—suddenly, you’re surrounded by a rainbow underwater: bright pink branches, golden brain-shaped mounds, and neon blue clusters waving in the current. These are coral reefs, the busiest "cities" in the sea, home to thousands of fish, turtles, and tiny sea creatures.
Show students images of vibrant coral reefs.
Key Question
Why do healthy coral reefs have such amazing, diverse colors?
Discuss ideas with the class: Do corals paint themselves? Are they born that way?
2. Explore: How do coral reefs come in many color?
Reveal: Coral colors come from tiny algae living inside them, and special pigments.
Zooxanthellae give corals warm base colors, and coral pigments add bright accents—together they create the diverse colors of healthy reefs.
Just like corals mix natural color ingredients, we mix red, green, and blue light (RGB) at different brightness levels to create all the coral colors we need.
Today, we’ll use an LED strip with our UNIHIKER K10 to become coral reef designers—creating our own colorful underwater worlds!
3. Engineer: Program the UNIHIKER K10 to Show a Color on LED Strip
Guide students through programming the UNIHIKER K10 with Mind+ V2 software.
1.Go to the Coding tab and select Upload Mode.
2.Click Extension → Board → Download and install the UNIHIKER K10 and RGB LED Strip.
3.Drag these blocks together:
Connect your UNIHIKER K10 to the computer with a Type-C cable, click "Connect Device", then upload the code.
Your LED strip will glow like a healthy orange coral!
4.Experience: Light your Light Strip
Make the hardware connections and program your UNIHIKER K10.
Activity 1
Load the project and adjust the RGB values (try (200, 50, 150) for pink coral, (0, 250, 100) for blue-green coral).
Try different RGB values in the program and observe the colors that show up.
Share your best coral color with the class!
5.Challenge: Build Your Own Coral Reef
Look closely at images of diverse coral reefs.
Name the colors you see (e.g., purple, blue, yellow).
Now, use your LED strip to create a mini coral reef where different sections represent different coral types.
Activity 2
Import the program and adjust the code.
6.Elaborate: Protect Our Coral Reef Cities
Coral reefs are like underwater cities—they’re home to 25% of all marine life, protect coastlines from storms, and even help make the oxygen we breathe. But right now, they’re in danger from:
1. Warmer ocean temperatures (causing bleaching)
2. Plastic pollution
3. Overfishing
Key Question
How Can We Keep Coral Reefs Colorful?
Activity 3
Brainstorm Conservation Ideas
As a class, list small actions we can take to protect coral reefs:
1. Reduce plastic use (plastic trash harms coral and sea creatures)
2. Save energy at home (less energy means fewer greenhouse gases that warm the ocean)
3. Never touch or stand on coral when snorkeling or diving
4. Support charities that plant new coral reefs
Every small action helps keep coral reefs vibrant and healthy. Today, we used code to simulate their colors—but the real magic is protecting the living reefs so future generations can enjoy their underwater rainbows too. This supports SDG 14: Life Below Water—our global goal to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.
Lesson3(K10).zip 
