Biome Project Rubric

Below is the rubric for the project, click on it to make it larger. I will bring copies of it to class on Friday for each group to complete a self-evaluation.

On Friday you will also receive your critique sheets for each group.

Working on Biome Projects

Today and tomorrow students will be working on their biome projects.

Biome Project

I am writing to you as the Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. With all of the deforestation, conflict and climate change, we are very worried that many of the earth’s biomes will disappear or be severely altered in the coming century. In an effort to preserve these precious ecosystems we, at the EPA, are creating a Biome Museum in Washington, DC.

I am requesting that you create an exhibit (in the form of a poster, powerpoint or diorama) on the ______________________. I have spoken to your teacher and she is fully on board with this project and will be counting it as a test grade. Your exhibit must include the following information:

* description of the physical environment.

* description of the photosynthetic organisms

* description of the animals (or list)

* description of how human impact has disrupted this biome

* at least 5 images (and of course citations for each image)

* a proper MLA style bibliography

You will need to gather information from at least 4 separate sources and cite these in the proper MLA format. I understand that you recently completed a large DNA Replication, Transcription and Translation where you needed to cite information, you should do the same thing for this exhibit. You will be presenting the effects of climate change on your biome to the class. The rest of the information will be shared during a symposium style "walk about."

I recommend you look at these websites for helpful information
UC Berkley: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/index.php

Blue Planet: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm

Enchanted Learning: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/

Section 4-2: Community Interactions

We started with a short quiz on the carbon cycle and then got back down to business, learning about connections in an ecosystem (and climate change).

Homework due Friday:
Find an article within the past year that talks about your home country's response to or attitude's towards climate change. You may be asked to 'adopt' a country.

Read the article.

Write down (or type and print) the following information:

Title of the article
Source
3-5 key points, that you can share with the class
3-5 sentences of your reaction to the article. Were you surprised by the content? Do you agree or disagree with what was written?

Climate Change

Today we started learning about climate change and why....

the phrase climate change is NOT interchangeable with global warming.

Tomorrow (or Thursday) you will have a 5-10 minute quiz on the carbon cycle.

Nitrogen Cycle

REMINDER: You have a good sized quiz on Monday. Anything in the first two packets is fair game as well as the nitrogen cycle.

For those of you who may have missed it: A massive volcano eruption caused the largest shut down of airports in peacetime.

After talking about the volcano, students had a reading quiz. We learned about the nitrogen cycle and in some classes read an article about nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria.

Click the picture below to link to the nitrogen cycle animation.

Carbon Cycle Webquest

Today (and tomorrow for D and F blocks) we will be in the computer lab doing a webquest on the Carbon Cycle. Click the picture below to link to the animation.
After you finish answering the questions go to: Google's Public Data Site for CO2 emissions per capita.

When you click on the link Switzerland's emissions are shown. Move your cursor along the line to show the amount of CO2 in metric tons. (click the photo to make it larger)
On the left side of the screen are a list of countries. Click through at least five countries and write down in your notebook what the CO2 emissions were in 2005. For each country list a possible explanation as to why the level of CO2 emissions are higher or lower than Switzerland's emissions.

Homework: read pages 78-80 and take notes for a reading quiz.

Ecological Pyramids and Nutrient Cycles

Today we learned about the three types of ecological pyramids, as well as how energy is transferred between trophic levels. We learned about the water cycle and started the carbon cycle. There is no homework tonight, UNLESS you got a check minus on your food web diagram. If you did not pass the homework, you need to redo it for homework tonight.

New Unit: Ecology

Today we started our last unit of the year: Ecology.

Homework:

There are various types of forest ecosystems:
tropical and subtropical which include:
tropical rain forest
tropical and subtropical evergreen forest
Mangrove forest

Temperate and Subpolar Forests which include:
Temperate deciduous forest
Temperate and subarctic, evergreen conifer forest
Temperate and subpolar, evergreen rain forest
Temperate, winter-rain, evergreen broadleaf forest
Choose one of the forests above and create a food web with at least two organisms at each level, producer through decomposer. You must cite your source(s).

Confused? Look at figure 8-3 on page 71 in your book (the picture below)

Types of forests list was adapted from here.

Finishing Chapter 18

Today we finished chapter 18 by wrapping up phylogenetic relationships and examining the 3 domain classification system.
Homework: Finish your presentations for your next class period.

Evolution Article Presentation

On Wednesday (or Thursday) depending on when your class meets you will have a short presentation due on an article about one of the evolutionary topics we have been studying.

This will count as a test grade.

1. Search for an article on www.sciencedaily.com using any of the following search words. The article must be from within one year.

Endosymbiosis

Darwin

Coevolution

Cambrian

Speciation

Extinction

Cladistics

You need to create a PowerPoint and give a SHORT oral presentation on the article.

Your presentation can be no more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds. You will be graded on your ability stay within the time requirement. What does this mean? 1. You should practice your presentation several times, before coming to class. 2. After 2 minutes and 30 seconds, you will be cut off.

Below is a PowerPoint that contains the information that you need to have in your PowerPoint.

Evolution Presentation

View more presentations from ilanasaxe.

How will you be graded? A rubric will be emailed to you.

Change in Plans

As a result of Step One testing on Thursday, the quiz is now moved to Monday. Today (and tomorrow for D and F blocks) we will watch the next segment of the PBS Evolution Series: Extinction! Students will answer the following questions while they watch the video.

1. Give a brief definition of extinction.
2. Approximately how many species that have ever lived on the planet have ever gone extinct?

3. On average a species dies out at ______________ years on earth.

4. How many mass extinctions have happened in the last 500 million years?

5. What were some of the environmental changes that happened to cause such a mass extinction?

6. How long did it take for the first dinosaurs to evolve?

7. Describe the behavior and physical appearance of mammals while dinosaurs were "ruling the world"

8. What was the K-T extinction event?

9. What happens to mammals as a result of this event?

10. When and where did the first human-like primates emerge?

11. What has happened to the rate of extinction since the human population has exploded?

12. What is the disappearance of large carnivores a sign of?

13. What are the relationships among plants, herbivores, and carnivores?

14. What is a primary cause of extinction?

15. Describe the formation of Hawaii's unique ecosystem

16. Two examples of invasive species: zebra mussels and brown tree snakes. Describe one of these two examples.

17. Describe: In North Dakota, using one weed species to battle another: leafy spurge versus flea beetle

18. What do you think: Is it too late to stop change in the Thai forests?

19. Can we slow the rate of human-caused species extinction and return to the natural cycle of evolution and extinction?

Great Transformations

Today we watched the video "Great Transformations" from the PBS Evolution series. Click the picture to link to the Video's website. Students answered the questions below while they watched the video.

1. What are the human connections to all animal life

2. How can we understanding human evolution through the study of whale evolution?

3. Write brief definition and history of mammals.

4. How did land-based mammals return to the sea?

5. How can fossils from "transitional species" trace whale evolution?

6. What can studying whale movement tell us about the evolutionary relationship with land mammals?

7. Describe the paleontological research into early tetrapod fossils

8. Which came first: leaving the water or developing legs?

9. What is the transition from fins to limb? How is it an evolutionary survival strategy

10. What happened in the Cambrian explosion?

11. What is the Burgess Shale and its rich fossil record?

12. What are Trilobites?

13. What are Pikia?

14. What can Fruit fly research tell us about evolution and genes?

15. What clues can embryo development give us about evolution?

16. What can studying primate movement tell us about our human ancestors and evolution?

17. Was the existence of homosapiens inevitable?

Homework: none

The Earth's Early History

Today students had a reading quiz on section 17.2 and their first pop quiz of the year. What was the point of the pop quiz? To see if students got anything out of spending three class periods working on a geologic timeline. The early verdict: Not all that worth it. Next year there will be questions that go along with the timeline.

Students worked in pairs to answer questions about the Miller-Urey experiment and then we watched this explanation of how Miller and Urey set up their experiment.



Students also learned about the endosymbiotic theory as well as how Earth's early atmosphere compares to the current atmosphere.

Homework:
Workbook pages 189-193
Questions:
page 189: #6-8
page 190: all
page 191:17-21
page 192 & 193: all

Please do NOT tear the pages out of the workbook. Bring your workbooks to class.

If you are in the play, you may have until Thursday to complete this assignment.

Finishing timelines

Today students finished their timelines and added a few more details of their choosing.

Everyone needed to look up and add to their timeline the following events:

Cambrian explosion
Permian period mass extinction
Archaeopteryx
Chicxulub
Bipedalism
Australopithecus

Working on Geologic Timelines

Today and tomorrow students will continue to work on their geologic timelines.

Breaking News:

Scientists reaffirm theory that giant asteroid killed dinosaurs

"(CNN) -- A team of scientists has agreed that a giant asteroid killed off dinosaurs and a majority of other species on Earth more than 65 million years ago...." click here to read the article

Constructing an Evolutionary Timeline

Today and in the next class period, students are working on constructing an Evolutionary timeline. To see the amazing John Kyrk timeline we view in class, click here. I suggest watching it a few times and preferably on a large screen so you are able to see all that the animation offers.

Below are the events which will be placed on the timeline:
Geological Events: When (in millions of years)
Pleistocene Ice Age 1.6
Land bridge between North and South America 5.7
Antarctic Ice cap 24
Mississippi River 35
Separation of Antarctica and Australia 50
Formation of the Himalayas 55
Formation of the Rocky Mountains 70
Breakup of Pangea 165
Oxygen building up in atmosphere 600-2500
Formation of the earth 4600

Biological Events

Pictograms (written communication) .005
Modern humans .04
Neanderthals .10

Manufactures stone tools 2.5
Lucy 3.2
Hominids 4.0
Monkeys 35
Primates 65
Flowering plants 140
Birds 150
Mammals 225
Dinosaurs 235
Reptiles 300
Seed producing plants 350
Amphibians 360
Land animals 400
Land plants 430
Vertebrates 520
Animals with hard shells 590
Soft bodied animals 680
Multicellular organisms 1000
Eukaryotes 1400
Bacteria 3500

Note: 1 billion equals 1000 million

*This timeline activity has been adapted from BSCS Biology: A Human Approach.

Evolution Test Today

Today students took a test on microevolution and speciation (chapters 15 and 16).

Tomorrow we will be starting chapter 17, which focuses on the fossil record, the Earth's early history, the evolution of multicelluar life and patterns in macroevolution.

Homework: Read section 17.1. Take notes for a reading quiz.

Review for Evolution Test

Today we reviewed for the test on Monday by playing jeopardy. You can download the powerpoint directly by clicking the link in your email. Several students requested to see other examples of animal courtship, so two are below.

Video of the California Salamanders