Introduction

You have a new after-school job working for a travel agent. You have been hired to create murals and brochures that will persuade travelers to visit a specific geographical biome. You will develop a power point presentation that will explain the plight of an endangered or threatened species from your assigned biome. You will share all this information with your colleagues in the travel industry. The more creative you are, the more business you will bring into the travel agency!

Click on the TASK button on the left for more information about your job, then return here to the INTRODUCTION page to continue.

Read the following information carefully. When you have finished reading, you will have to answer some questions. The boss wants to be sure that you will be able to give the correct information to your customers.

There are many different kinds of plants and animals on the Earth, but only certain kinds are naturally found at any particular place. For example, cacti are found in the desert, polar bears are found in the Arctic, and elephants are found in central Africa and India. So, why don't people living in south Texas have to be on the lookout for snow leopards, or why don't kids in Minnesota have to worry about finding giant boa constrictors living in their back yards? It is because these animals are not adapted to live in the average weather conditions found in Texas or Minnesota.

These average weather conditions, such as the range of temperature and rainfall that typically occur in a particular location like Minnesota, are called the climate of that location. Some climates are hot, some are cold, some are wet and some are dry. Adapted means that a plant or animal has inherited certain characteristics that enable it to live in one type of climate or another. For example, polar bears have a layer of fat under their skin and a heavy fur coat to help them withstand arctic cold. They would have a difficult time trying to survive in a hot climate.

Plants and animals don't live in isolation, but they live together with other plants and animals in an interdependent group called an ecological community. If you think about it for a moment, you will realize that all of the plants and animals in a particular ecological community must be adapted to the same climate so that they can all live in the same location.

A distinct ecological community of plants and animals living together in a particular climate is called a biome. Areas of the world that share the same type of climate (a physical characteristic) generally belong to the same biome region. So , all areas on the map below that are purple share the same type of climate, and therefore all these areas of the world are classified as a tundra region. Scientists have divided the broad spectrum of climates and ecological communities found on Earth into biomes in different ways - some of these biomes are located on many continents on the earth, some on only a few. Here is a commonly found grouping:

Arctic Tundra
Deciduous Forest
Desert
Tropical Rainforest
Savannah/Grassland
Taiga

The locations of these different biomes across the face of Earth are shown in different colors in the map* above.

• The Arctic tundra is purple (ice is white).
• Deciduous forests are dark green.
• Deserts are light blue.
• Tropical rainforests are red.
• Savannahs/grasslands are yellow and tan.
• Areas of taiga are neon green.

  *Antarctica is not on the map.

*vocabulary - see glossary

Once your group has finished reading this introduction to biomes, answer the following questions. These papers will be graded so it is important that you do a good job. You may discuss your answers with the members of your group, but EVERYONE must write out the answers on a piece of lined paper. Make sure your answers are neat and written clearly in complete, well written, sixth grade sentences. Edit your work. It might help to read your answers aloud to a member of your group to make sure that they make sense. All of the information you need to answer these questions is located on the pages of this webquest and the classroom atlases.

Questions - Remember to answer in complete sentences.

1. What is the main physical characteristic of a place that would identify it as part of a particular biome. In other words, what is it about a particular place that would cause it to be identified as part of a desert biome rather than part of a tundra biome?

2. Why do you find certain animals in one biome and not in another? For example, why would you find a polar bear in the tundra, but not in the deciduous forest?

3. Using the biome map on this page and an atlas, identify the continents on which your assigned biome can be located. Be sure to give the name of your biome.

4. Explain why the following plants and animals might be described as interdependent: lion, water buffalo, grass, mosquito.

5. The fact that plants and animals in a biome are interdependent can cause a plant or animal to become endangered or threatened. For example, if something happens to the water buffalo population, it affects the lion population. Explain how.

Use the menu/navigation bar at the top left of this page to locate the following information.

6. Describe your new job.

7. Click on the TASK button and describe the group's responsibilities for this project.

8. Describe each individual's responsibilities for this project.

9. Click on the PROCEDURE button. After reading the Procedure page record the following:
a. the name of your travel agency
b. group recorder(s) name
c. group taskmaster name
d. group listener name
e. group audio-master name

10. What webquest page tells you what information you need to include in your mural and endangered species presentation?

11. How will you divide up the research? Record what information each group member will be researching.

12. What information do you need to include in your endangered species presentation?

13. When you have finished this worksheet, hand it in to your teacher and return to the PROCEDURE page and continue with #5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biome Jeopardy