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.