Drought!

Deserts, tundra, savannah, grasslands, and chaparral are all biomes that do not have access to regular supplies of water. Therefore, all organisms need to have ways to survive the times when things are dry.

BlogWork

Watch the video and describe at least three ways the organisms in the video have adapted to survive draught.

Taiga!

This week, we have been discussing the Taiga biome, a coniferous forest that covers a huge swath of land just below the Arctic circle. Almost all of Canada and large portions of Russia and China are covered in this beautiful biome. Humans have done some damage to the ecosystem over the years, but there are also many groups trying to help protect and preserve the land. One controversial area of conservation is the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone Park.

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Watch the video. PBS.org

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Discuss the pros and cons of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park. Please write a paragraph.

Biomes!

This week we begin a new unit on Biomes. Biomes are areas on the earth characterized by specific types of plants and climates. We live in a temperate deciduous forest which means that the plants need to find ways to survive in all four seasons. How have the trees in this area adapted to survive these cold winter days?

BlogWork

Watch the following video and write down three to five sentences describing the Karoo Biome.

Adaptation!

Today, we spoke briefly about adaptation, which is the theme for the curriculum on the middle school team. Essentially every part of a living organism is some form of adaptation, but some adaptations are cooler than others. One of my personal favorite adaptations is bioluminescence, the ability of an organism to produce its own light (like fireflies). Check out this video: NY Times

 BlogWork

Define "adaptation" and then give an example of one of your favorites. As always, please write a complete paragraph.

Classification!

Hello and welcome to BlogWork! This is our first BlogWork assignment for the year so let's start off strong. All posts should be written in your own words and in paragraph form. I highly recommend having them proofed first.

This week, we will be talking about the classification of life. Why do we classify things? What purpose does it serve us? Well, could you imagine if there were no classifying systems in the world? What would it be like to step into a grocery store? Yikes! You would never find anything! Thankfully, Carolus Linnaeus developed a system so that we can organize all of the life that exists in the world. This system, created in the 1700's, is still used today.

BlogWork

Go to the following website: Time.com

Read about one of the new species that was discovered in the past year and write a paragraph in your own words about the animal.

Post your paragraph in the comments section of this post.