1/20 – Gauntlet
Option #1 – Straight Up – Answer the questions in complete sentences.
1.
Which layer of the atmosphere contains 99% of our weather? Why isn’t weather present in the others?
Troposphere. Air is not as dense in the upper layers.
2.
Which layer of the atmosphere contains the ozone layer?
Why is ozone important? Stratosphere. Ozone prevents UV radiation from harming the Earth.
3.
Compare a composite and a shield volcano. You may use a sentence or graphic organizer. A shield volcano has a gentle slope and eruptions may be constant but are not generally violent. Composite volcanoes go BOOM 
4.
How is a supervolcano different from the more traditional types of volcanoes? A supervolcano features a large magma chamber underground..you wouldn’t know it if you were there. They tend to be global events as well .
5.
Explain how plate tectonics shaped the world as we know it today. Will it continue? Plates moving on our liquid mantle formed our current landscape and will continue as evidenced by chemical elements in fossils. We know this because the plates are moving a various directions a few inches per year.
6.
Compare and contrast earthquakes and volcanoes.

Both are a product of plate tectonics. Earthquakes occur when plates interact while volcanoes generally occur when plates pull apart.
7.
What are traits? Describe how you get them. Traits are physical properties such as eye color or hair color. Traits can also be your probability of having a characteristic that ‘runs’ in the family. You get your traits by genes which travel along a chromosome..you get 23 chromosomes from each parent.
8.
Compare phenotype and genotype – what do they tell you?
Phenotype (photograph) is the physical trait based on the genetic combination you receive. The genotype is the actual genetic combination (Bb for example)
9.
Compare homozygous alleles and heterozygous alleles?
What do they tell you? Homozygous alleles will give you a dominant or recessive gene with no hybrid (BB, bb).
Heterozygous alleles are a hybrid of the two traits but you will exhibit the dominant trait.
10.
Compare the desert and grassland. Where is easier for an animal to find a niche? What are some of the major biotic and abiotic factors? Desert has a large amount of biodiversity but little rain and resources. Animals need to adapt to the harsh environment in terms of extreme temperature change and little moisture if any. The

grassland supports grasses and some trees and one can see for miles .
11.
What are the major parts of an ecosystem? Food web,
Abiotic, biotic, producers, consumers, decomposers
12.
Compare a waxing crescent moon with a waning crescent moon.
Wax to the right, wane to the left (add more)
13.
What are the chromosomes and what do they do?
Chromosomes carry genes which determine your traits.
14.
Compare the deciduous rainforest with the tropical rainforest. Deciduous or temperate rainforest still gets 90 inches of rain per year but the temperature is cooler than that of a tropical rainforest. Both have significant biodiversity.
15.
A homozygous dominant parent for brown eyes (B) pairs with the heterozygous parent. Create a punnet square for this situation and list the chances of the offspring having blue eyes.
Homozygous dominant = BB
Heterozygous = Bb
50% chance of homozygous dominant child
50% change of heterogygous child
0% chance blue eyes
You need to put punnet square together 

Option #2 – Mission to Mars
You are in charge of creating a planet (lucky you!). Describe the planet you would create using the following vocabulary : trait, chromosome, heterozygous, homozygous, plate tectonics, volcano, earthquake, climate, layers of the atmosphere, biomes, phenotype, genotype, biotic, abiotic, natural selection
Option #3 – Keeping up with the ecosystems.
You are in charge of creating a new reality show for MTV. Your job is to use the vocabulary the follows to create characters. Base the personality of the character on the definition of the term.
The scene you are writing has our characters meeting for the first time. And action!
Vocab : trait, chromosome, heterozygous, homozygous, plate tectonics, volcano, earthquake, climate, layers of the atmosphere, biomes, phenotype, genotype, biotic, abiotic, natural selection
Option #4 – Vacation Brochure/Poster
You just opened an intergalactic travel agency! Create a vacation brochure for Mercury,
Venus, or Mars and convince us that one of these planets is THE best place for a vacation. Don’t forget to label your vocab and show evidence that you understand the meaning of terms. Here is the vocab below.. trait, chromosome, heterozygous, homozygous, plate tectonics, volcano, earthquake, climate, layers of the atmosphere, biomes, phenotype, genotype, biotic, abiotic, natural selection