Biomes
S7L4. Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and their environments.
e. Describe the characteristics of Earth’s major terrestrial biomes (i.e. tropical rain forest, savannah, temperate, desert, taiga, tundra, and mountain) and aquatic communities (i.e. freshwater, estuaries, and marine).
ISTE Standards for Students
2. Communication and collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
2.a Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
3. Research and information fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
3.b Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
4.a Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation
Digital Information Fluency
1.E Learners select and apply appropriate search strategies to effectively and efficiently locate reliable digital information related to their academic learning goals
Navigate hyperlink, i.e. browsing strategies
2.B Learners evaluate the quality of a search result to determine the reliability of its content
Investigate internal content reliability (accuracy)
3.A Learners ethically use digital information
Learners cite the source and/or author for the selected digital information
Principles of Inquiry-Based Learning
Deep Understanding- The interaction of humans and their impact on biomes is a political controversy. Students will understand how biomes are affected by global warming. They will be able to collect and analyze research that suggests that the human impact on biomes is damaging them. This will help the student choose how to interact with their environment in a way that least impacts their biome and the biomes of others.
Assessment- Students will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding by engaging in disussions, debates, and through the design of a project centered around a biome.
Demonstration of Understanding – Students will publicly demonstrate their understanding with their presentation about a biome. Students will be able to share and improve their ideas as they gain feedback from the instructor and their peers.
Learner Success- The assessment provides an opportunity for the student to set their own project management goal and determine roles, facilitated discussions, and resolve conflicts.
Engage, Enhance, Extend
The creation of the presentation about a biome and the use of the internet to research the information related to the debate enhances the learner’s knowledge about the subject. Students are able to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the content because they interact closely with features of the biome and become well versed in the things that are affecting it. The presentation tool allows students to demonstrate their understanding in ways they could not with traditional tools.
Essential questions-
Why are there different types of environments on Earth? Why isn’t there just one?
Why are biomes important?
How are the biomes affected by its inhabitants?
What can you do to protect the biomes?
Lesson Plan:
Step 1: Explain what a biome is.
Step 2: Allow students to search the website from curated content and familiarize themselves with the biomes. As they search they should pick a biome to explore more closely. As they pick their biomes they should enter it onto the discussion board with a brief description of why they picked it. No more than four students are allowed to work on one biome. Link to different biomes is in curated content.
Step 3: Students will take ownership of their biome and create a presentation with the Web 2.0 tool of their choice. With the Web 2.0 tool students will begin to design their presentation about their chosen biome. Students are required to post their presentation to the discussion board labeled with their biome name in order to collaborate later in the lesson. The presentation should include images of the terrain, plants and animal life, a description of the climate, and other facts about the biome. Citations must be provided for content, curated resources provided. Curated resource linked, with information about the global warming debate
Step 4: Students will view the presentation of their peers critique them or comment with additional information or questions. Once the peer reviews are completed, students will revise their presentations.
Step 5: Students will collaborate with students who have studied the same biome. They will research within Galileo, linked in curated site, and on the internet various problems that are occurring in that biome. Students will note these issues and what researchers suggest is the cause. Climate change must be one of the areas looked at regarding each biome.
Step 6: Assignment
Students will use the information they have acquired to debate the impact of climate change on their studied biome.
Curated resources- https://www.pinterest.com/baziel/biomes/
Assessment Assignment-
You will debate this topic. You will not know which side of the debate you will be on, until it is time for the debate. You will debate in teams, regarding the biome you have already studied. Each biome will debate this question: Is climate change affecting my biome? And if so, what are some of the causes? If not, how is that the case?
In the debate you must counter your opponents arguments at least twice. Each person on the team must contribute to the debate. Arguments must be clearly stated and backed up with facts. Debates will last up to ten minutes.
When the debate is over, write a discussion board post stating which biome you represented, which side of the argument, and whether or not your opponent’s case was convincing. You are also required to comment on the debate of at least two other biomes. Include one compliment and one area where there is room for improvement. Also, reflect on what you truly believe is happening in your biome and why.
Tools for assessing this assignment are:
e. Describe the characteristics of Earth’s major terrestrial biomes (i.e. tropical rain forest, savannah, temperate, desert, taiga, tundra, and mountain) and aquatic communities (i.e. freshwater, estuaries, and marine).
ISTE Standards for Students
2. Communication and collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
2.a Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
3. Research and information fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
3.b Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
4.a Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation
Digital Information Fluency
1.E Learners select and apply appropriate search strategies to effectively and efficiently locate reliable digital information related to their academic learning goals
Navigate hyperlink, i.e. browsing strategies
2.B Learners evaluate the quality of a search result to determine the reliability of its content
Investigate internal content reliability (accuracy)
3.A Learners ethically use digital information
Learners cite the source and/or author for the selected digital information
Principles of Inquiry-Based Learning
Deep Understanding- The interaction of humans and their impact on biomes is a political controversy. Students will understand how biomes are affected by global warming. They will be able to collect and analyze research that suggests that the human impact on biomes is damaging them. This will help the student choose how to interact with their environment in a way that least impacts their biome and the biomes of others.
Assessment- Students will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding by engaging in disussions, debates, and through the design of a project centered around a biome.
Demonstration of Understanding – Students will publicly demonstrate their understanding with their presentation about a biome. Students will be able to share and improve their ideas as they gain feedback from the instructor and their peers.
Learner Success- The assessment provides an opportunity for the student to set their own project management goal and determine roles, facilitated discussions, and resolve conflicts.
Engage, Enhance, Extend
The creation of the presentation about a biome and the use of the internet to research the information related to the debate enhances the learner’s knowledge about the subject. Students are able to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the content because they interact closely with features of the biome and become well versed in the things that are affecting it. The presentation tool allows students to demonstrate their understanding in ways they could not with traditional tools.
Essential questions-
Why are there different types of environments on Earth? Why isn’t there just one?
Why are biomes important?
How are the biomes affected by its inhabitants?
What can you do to protect the biomes?
Lesson Plan:
Step 1: Explain what a biome is.
Step 2: Allow students to search the website from curated content and familiarize themselves with the biomes. As they search they should pick a biome to explore more closely. As they pick their biomes they should enter it onto the discussion board with a brief description of why they picked it. No more than four students are allowed to work on one biome. Link to different biomes is in curated content.
Step 3: Students will take ownership of their biome and create a presentation with the Web 2.0 tool of their choice. With the Web 2.0 tool students will begin to design their presentation about their chosen biome. Students are required to post their presentation to the discussion board labeled with their biome name in order to collaborate later in the lesson. The presentation should include images of the terrain, plants and animal life, a description of the climate, and other facts about the biome. Citations must be provided for content, curated resources provided. Curated resource linked, with information about the global warming debate
Step 4: Students will view the presentation of their peers critique them or comment with additional information or questions. Once the peer reviews are completed, students will revise their presentations.
Step 5: Students will collaborate with students who have studied the same biome. They will research within Galileo, linked in curated site, and on the internet various problems that are occurring in that biome. Students will note these issues and what researchers suggest is the cause. Climate change must be one of the areas looked at regarding each biome.
Step 6: Assignment
Students will use the information they have acquired to debate the impact of climate change on their studied biome.
Curated resources- https://www.pinterest.com/baziel/biomes/
Assessment Assignment-
You will debate this topic. You will not know which side of the debate you will be on, until it is time for the debate. You will debate in teams, regarding the biome you have already studied. Each biome will debate this question: Is climate change affecting my biome? And if so, what are some of the causes? If not, how is that the case?
In the debate you must counter your opponents arguments at least twice. Each person on the team must contribute to the debate. Arguments must be clearly stated and backed up with facts. Debates will last up to ten minutes.
When the debate is over, write a discussion board post stating which biome you represented, which side of the argument, and whether or not your opponent’s case was convincing. You are also required to comment on the debate of at least two other biomes. Include one compliment and one area where there is room for improvement. Also, reflect on what you truly believe is happening in your biome and why.
Tools for assessing this assignment are:
- Discussion board posts to keep an record of progress through the assignment
- Multi-media explanations of understanding
- Solution reviews where students show work in progress to peers and other community members
- Whole-class discussion and debate to vet and refine ideas and explanations.