Student Activities :

Pre-Activities - These lessons should be performed before beginning the suggested main activities.  Students will need to learn the following:

1. How to use Excel spreadsheets (pdf file available)
2. Animal Classification (AIMS Activity "Animal Antics")
3. Instruction in TI (Texas Instrument) Calculator Based Laboratory System to explore temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity.  

Main Activities - Students need to be divided into three groups of 7-9 students. Each group will rotate through 3 main areas of activities described below.

Student Group 1

• Live Internet Data Collection Activity using Weather Underground website.
• Weather Underground available online at: http://www.weatherunderground.com/
• Collect daily current climatic data for selected cities in the various biomes.
• Use Excel spreadsheets to save and record data.
• Use Excel to plot points and create graphs of collected data:  Temperature (ÉF), Rainfall (Snowfall) (inches), Humidity (%), Wind Direction and Speed, Barometric Pressure (inches), and daily descriptive climatic conditions.
• Analyze data. Look for patterns.
• Does each city's climate fit the characteristic profile of its biome?

Student Group 2

• Live Internet Data Collection Activity using the historical files section of Weather Underground's website.
• Weather Underground available online at: http://www.weatherunderground.com/
• Collect one data point weekly for one year (1999) for each selected city (a total of 52 data points per city).
• Collect one data point weekly for a different year (1995) for each selected city (a total of 52 data points per city).
• Save and record data in Excel spreadsheets.
• Use Excel to plot points and create graphs of collected data:  Temperature (ÉF), Rainfall (Snowfall) (inches), Humidity (%), Wind Direction and Speed, Barometric Pressure (inches), and daily descriptive climatic conditions.
• Analyze data. Look for patterns.
• Does each city's climate fit the characteristic profile of its biome?

Student Group 3

  

Create a World Travel Booklet.
Write 1-2 pages describing the major characteristics of each selected city.
Complete the Biome Research and Notes handout (PDF file)

booklet should include the following information:

• people and culture of selected cities in biomes.
• economy of the country/city - import/export goods.
• vertebrates (mammals, fish, reptiles, birds, amphibians).
• invertebrates (mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, ringed worms).
• vegetation (plants, trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses).

 

Extended Activities

We always have students who finish quickly and efficiently.  Here are some suggested integrated activities to enhance the learning of these hard workers:

Hands-on Experiments:

• Owl pellets
• Terrarium building
• Pill Bug Activities
• Monarch Butterfly Activities
• Ladybugs
• Worm Farm

Related AIMS activities:

• Natural Selection and Camouflage (adapted from AIMS "Now you see it, now you don't")
• Moisture Holding Capacity of Soil (adapted from AIMS "Disappearing Drips")
• Food Chains and Webs (adapted from AIMS "Pizza Parts and Web Wheels")
• Protective coloration and animal survival (adapted from AIMS "Predator vs. Prey")
• Population Sampling (adapted from AIMS "Census Takers")

Music

• Sing and Record Songs about Habitats and Food Chains (create "wav" files and add to your classroom home page).
• Listen to the famous musical composition "Peter and the Wolf" and describe the instruments that are used to represent the predator and the instruments that are used to represent the prey.  Explain why these instruments were chosen appropriately.

Writing

• Create a series of name poems to tell key facts about an endangered species.  Consider the orangutan, armadillo, sloth, manatee, ferret, gazelle, panda, or ocelot.
• Write an original fairy tale, fable, or legend about one of the following endangered species:  snow leopard, whooping crane, spider monkey, white rhinoceros, Ceylon elephant, or Andean condor.