Objective 5.01 Evaluate the survival of organisms and suitable adaptive responses to environmental pressures. This exercise allows students to visualize climatic factors in six major land biomes and relate them to adaptations of animals and plants. The teacher should assign one set of data to each group of students and have them plot the data on a grid. Each group will then research their assigned biome to identify the specialized adaptations of at least three plant and animal species in that biome. Students may use their textbooks, atlases, encyclopedias and on-line sources.
Groups can then present their findings to the whole class.
Or you can use the jigsaw method in which students become experts in a topic and then teach a small group. After the students have learned about the individual biomes, conduct a class discussion to compare and contrast the different biomes. Data from the NWS is in inches and Fahrenheit and will need to be converted to centimeters and Celsius. This exercise was adapted from a BSCS Green Version lab and was modified and written by Gordon Plumblee, Western Alamance High School, Elon College, NC 27244. To study the relationship between climatic factors and biomes.