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Biomes: Ecosystems on Land

In this unit, students will begin to make connections between the biotic and abiotic parts of the environment. The different critical factors that define the biodiversity within each type of biome, or land ecosystem will be explored. Differentions will be made between tropical, temperate, and polar. The students will also spend time learning about the different types of aquatic ecosystems, both freshwater and marine.


Land Biomes Unit Plan

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Land Biomes Unit Plan

Purpose: This is an outline of the major lessons covered within this unit, their suggested sequence, a time estimate for each topic, and important objectives and vocabulary covered by this unit. Links are provided for any website, video clip, worksheet, or lecture Powerpoint needed by the instructor.
This unit plan is primarily written for instructors of upper-level high school students and introductory college-level students.


Land Ecosystems and Ecological Succession Powerpoint

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Purpose: This lecture provides students with an overview of the major types of biomes, or land-based ecosystems. The major geographic features that affect climate are explored, including latitude and proximity to water. Climatographs are used to compare and contrast the temperature and precipitation within each of the ecosystems. Finally, a brief overview of ecological succession is given.

Essential Concepts: Biomes, ecosystems, rainshadow effect, latitude, climate, critical factor, desert, grassland, mountain, forests, rainforest, tropical, temperate, polar, tundra, climatogram, climatograph, worksheet, powerpoint, lecture, habitat, niche, abiotic factors, biotic factors, ecological succession, primary succession, secondary succession.


Land Ecosystems and Ecological Succession Notes Outline

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Purpose: Taking efficient notes can be a big challenge for many students, especially when working from a Powerpoint lecture. This outline gives students a means to take notes that guides them toward important concepts and avoids the pitfalls of writing word-for-word or simply not taking notes at all. The outline is written as a series of questions, fill-in-the-blanks, or diagrams.

Essential Concepts: Biomes, ecosystems, rainshadow effect, latitude, climate, critical factor, desert, grassland, mountain, forests, rainforest, tropical, temperate, polar, tundra, climatogram, climatograph, worksheet, powerpoint, lecture, habitat, niche, abiotic factors, biotic factors, ecological succession, primary succession, secondary succession.


Climatographs - Graphing Practice Worksheets

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Climatograph worksheet set.

Purpose: Climatograms, also known as climatographs, take the two most important factors for ecosystems on land and graph them together. This helps create a nice visual way to compare climate data from two disinct ecosystems. This is a set of worksheets that has students practice making climatograms for different types of forests, deserts, and grasslands.

Essential concepts:Climatogram, climate, temperature, precipitation, deserts, forests, grasslands.


Mapping Temperature Zones - Interactive Map Activity

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Interactive temperature map activity.

Purpose: This activity uses the interactive mapmaker tool hosted by NOAA to have students construct a map showing the major temperature, precipitation, and vegetation zones of the world. This is a good activity for students with a weak background in geography, as they will need to locate the equator, tropics, Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle. They will also identify the major mountain ranges.

Essential concepts:Latitude, equator, Arctic circle, Antarctic circle, tropics, temperate zone, altitude.


Planet Earth Series by BBC Nature

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Purpose: The Planet Earth series was groundbreaking when released. It contained stunning visuals of ecosystems and organisms never before recorded on video. This unit is ideal for showing one or more of these episodes. This section of Aurum Science has a collection of resources specifically for the Planet Earth Series.

Essential Concepts: Planet Earth, grasslands, plains, forests, deciduous forests, coniferous forests, taiga, tundra, deserts, shallow seas, fresh water, deep ocean.


Planet Earth II Series by BBC Nature

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View the Planet Earth II worksheets

Purpose: This is a second Planet Earth series conducted by the BBC. While each episode is not as ecologically rich as the first, it does have some pretty remarkable footage, and shows some unusual biomes, including islands and cities.

Essential Concepts: Planet Earth II, grasslands, forests, deserts, cities, mountains, islands.


Google Earth Field Trip - Rainshadow Effect

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Download the Google Earth Rainshadows worksheet.

Purpose: The rainshadow effect describes the differences in precipitation levels between the windward side of a mountain range, which faces incoming moist air currents, and the leeward side, which lies in the dry shadow of the mountain. In this virtual field trip, students will use Google Earth to visit areas on both the leeward and windward sides of the Cascade mountains in the Pacific Northwest United States, Andes Mountains in South America, and Himalayan mountains between the Indian subcontinent and China.

Essential concepts: Rainshadow effect, mountains, temperate rainforest, evergreen forest, desert, altitude, temperature, precipitation, ecosystems.


Succession at Mt. St. Helens Activity

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Download the Mount St Helens sucession activity.

Purpose: When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, entire ecosystems surrounding the mountain were destroyed by the heat and pyroclastic flows. Scientists expected that ecosystem recovery would take many decades. As it turned out, succession took place much faster than expected, making the area a living research project for scientists. In this activity, students will track the appearance of plant and animal species in an area of the mountain over a period of 30 years, tracking the progression of succession.

Essential concepts: Ecosystem succession, secondary succession, pioneers, climax community, generalists, specialists, reproductive strategy.


Land Ecosystems and Ecological Succession Study Guide

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Purpose: Once the instruction for the unit is completed, students can complete this study guide to aid in their preparation for a written test. The study guide is divided into two sections: vocabulary and short answer questions. The vocabulary is taken directly form the lecture, sequentially. The short answer questions are meant to model the type they may see on the exam. This specific study guide only covers the land ecosystems section of this unit

Essential Concepts: Biomes, ecosystems, rainshadow effect, latitude, climate, critical factor, desert, grassland, mountain, forests, rainforest, tropical, temperate, polar, tundra, climatogram, climatograph, worksheet, powerpoint, lecture, habitat, niche, abiotic factors, biotic factors, ecological succession, primary succession, secondary succession


PBS Living Edens Ecosystems Research Project

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Purpose: This is a long-term research project and presentation assignment that can be used during or after the ecosystems unit. Students will be assigned specific ecosystems from different places all over the Earth. They will find and document examples of animal and plant adaptations, speciation, abiotic factors, and interspecies relationships. This assignment uses the PBS Living Edens documentary series produced in 1996-1998. The videos can be found here in .mkv format.

Essential Concepts: Biomes, land ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, symbiotis, adaptations, speciation, climate, latitude, natural selection, convergent evolution, divergent evolution, co-evolution, biotic factors, abiotic factors.


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