Building a Biome Model
Bell Ringer
1. What are the two factors that define a biome?
Provide specific examples of biomes.
2. What is the difference between deciduous and
coniferous forests?
Groups of four (or three) assigned one biome.
Why are we doing this project?
• Open the student guide document that I emailed
you.
• In groups of 4, you will each read an assigned
portion of the Overview.
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–
–
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Student 1: paragraphs 1-2
Student 2: paragraphs 3-4
Student 3: paragraphs 5-6
Student 4: paragraphs 7-9
• Each student will have 1 minute to share the
most relevant information from their assigned
paragraphs with the rest of the group.
Learning Objectives
• Design an experiment to answer a specific question
and test a hypothesis
• Differentiate independent and dependent variables
• Evaluate the results and suggest modifications to an
experiment
• Explain a conceptual relationship between
temperature, energy inputs and surface features
• Describe strengths and limitations of physical
models
Relevance
People all around the globe are concerned with current
events and the impact they have on our daily lives. We
are also interested in how events will change and affect
our future lives and generations. This is especially true
for events related to the earth system that is our
shared habitat. In order to make predictions about such
a complicated system, we have to develop models. Only
if we can improve what we know about the relative
importance of specific factors/variables, can we
understand the delicate balance that regulates Earth’s
habitable temperature.
What are the characteristics of your
assigned biome?
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•
•
•
Tropical rainforest and Tropical seasonal forest/savanna
Subtropical desert & Temperate grassland/cold desert
Woodland/shrubland
Temperate seasonal forest (deciduous) & Temperate
rainforest
• Boreal (coniferous) forest
• Tundra & Polar Ice Cap
1.
2.
3.
4.
What are the geographic locations of your biome?
What is the temperature range for this biome?
How much precipitation does this biome receive annually?
What kind of vegetation (plants) are found in this biome?
Bell Ringer
How could the color of Earth’s
surface features impact the
temperature of the biome?
What is the term for this
phenomenon?
Albedo
Albedo is the fraction of solar energy (shortwave radiation)
reflected from the Earth back into space. It is a measure of the
reflectivity of Earth’s surface.
World Vegetation (Biome) Map
What are the characteristics of your
assigned biome?
•
•
•
•
Tropical rainforest and Tropical seasonal forest/savanna
Subtropical desert & Temperate grassland/cold desert
Woodland/shrubland
Temperate seasonal forest (deciduous) & Temperate
rainforest
• Boreal (coniferous) forest
• Tundra & Polar Ice Cap
1.
2.
3.
4.
What are the geographic locations of your biome?
What is the temperature range for this biome?
How much precipitation does this biome receive annually?
What kind of vegetation (plants) are found in this biome?
Introducing your Biome
• Trace all of the areas where your biome is located
onto the transparency.
• Be prepared to present and justify the following
information about your biome:
1. What are the geographic locations of your biome?
2. What is the temperature range for this biome?
3. How much precipitation does this biome receive
annually?
4. What kind of vegetation (plants) are found in this
biome?
Biome Precipitation v. Temperature
Bell Ringer
• What are the two factors that define a
?
• What are the two factors that define a
?
• What term refers to the measure of the
reflectivity of Earth’s surface?
• How do dark and light surface features
change the amount of reflectivity?
Planning Your Biome Construction
Review Methods, student guide page 4
You will build models that represent the same
amount of different colored areas that are on the
Biome Vegetation Map.
Refer to the list of available materials and consider
the following questions:
• Which materials will be appropriate for your
biome?
• Is the color of the materials that you choose
important for your model?
• How much of each color will you use in your
model?
Review the list of responsibilities for each team
member (student guide page 8). Take two minutes
and decide who will be the:
• Lead Researcher
• Materials and Data Manager
• Experimental Communicator
Experimental Design Question:
How much of each colored
material should be used to
represent your biome?
How much of each colored material
should be used to represent your
biome?
1. Overlay the outline you made from the global vegetation map with the
transparent grid boxes sheet.
2. Trace the outline onto the grid boxes sheet.
3. Count the total number of boxes in the circled areas (combine/estimate
box parts as whole boxes). This is an estimate of the total area of Earth that
represents your biome. This number is 100% of your biome’s Earth surface.
4. Within your biome there are probably more than one color represented.
You can see this by looking at colors on the world vegetation map. Count the
numbers of boxes of each different color within your outlines.
5. Calculate the percentage of each color by separately dividing the number
of boxes of each color by the total number of boxes you counted and then
multiplying this number by 100. This number estimates the amount of surface
in your model that will be covered by each material.
Research Proposal
A good experiment is guided by a well thought
out plan. What is your plan?
• Prepare your team’s research proposal by
completing Data Sheet 2: Experimental Design
Proposal
• Complete handout pages 9 - 10
Bell Ringer
1. Does is matter if a planet has an
atmosphere or has no atmosphere?
2. What kind of effect might an atmosphere
have on surface temperature? Why? Write
it down.
3. Once you have written your thoughts
down discuss them with a partner. Be
prepared to discuss your thoughts with the
class.
In today’s activity you will test how the presence of a
simulated atmosphere affects planet surface temperature
for an area with the characteristics of your biome.
Your teams will conduct experiments to test
these two questions:
1) Does an atmosphere influence the
temperature of a planet system?
2) How do the different biomes influence the
temperature of a planet system? You will
create a physical model for your biome, one
with an atmosphere and one without on
which to conduct your experiment.
Construct your physical small-scale
model, but do it twice.
1. Since you are testing the effect of an atmosphere on
surface temperature, you will need to have two models.
One of the models will have an atmosphere and one
will not have an atmosphere. Use your experimental
protocol that you wrote during last class as methods to
construct your biome model and set up the experiment.
2. Use clear plastic wrapping to represent an atmosphere.
After you have built your biome models you can simply
place the plastic wrapping over the top of your box. Be
sure that you have placed all material, including a
thermometer inside the model before placing the
plastic wrapping on.
Bell Ringer
Welcome Back!!!
Complete your graph from the Biome Lab
experiment.
Was there anything surprising
about your results? Explain, using
specific evidence from your graph.
These graphs represent the data for an experiment. Compare the data
for the two model situations (atmosphere/no atmosphere).
How does an atmosphere seem to have
affected the temperature in the models? Are
the results similar to yours? Explain.
Individual Assessment Questions
(15 minutes)
Working with your
group, complete the
questions on the last
page (p. 14) of your
lab.
Examining Physical Models
Prepare responses for these questions for the quiz tomorrow.
1. What are the strengths and limitations of
physical models?
2. How well do you think physical models
simulate the actual temperature differences
found on planets with a thin atmosphere
compared to those with a thick atmosphere?
3. What could be changed in the physical
models so that they could better simulate the
Earth?
Building a Biome Quiz
1. How did the presence of an atmosphere on the
models influence the temperature of the biomes
represented?
2. In what ways does a thick atmosphere affect the
Earth system?
3. In what ways do the world’s biomes effect
Earth’s temperature? Be specific.
4. What is the term that describes the reflectivity
of Earth’s surface features?
5. Why should we not solely rely on physical
models to understand a certain aspect of the
environment?