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L. Ausmus, L. Venables
Science 8
December 2002 / January 2003

To begin your assignment, click on the "Instructions" button, and continue from there.

R. Derksen,

Instructions

Students prepare a booklet describing the biomes of the world. They collect information from their textbook and videos. In the library, they complete data sheets on 8 major world biomes.

  • Data Sheet Topics:
    • climate
    • plant life
    • animal life
    • additional notes: eg. where located, size, unique features

  • Biomes:
    • tropical rain forest
    • savanna
    • desert
    • deciduous forest
    • prairies
    • chaparral
    • taiga
    • tundra

A note on terms:

Not all the resources use the same terms that you have been given for your biomes. For example, instead of rain forests and deciduous forest, the resource might put everything under forest. Instead of prairies, the term used might be grasslands.

Most of the resources listed for this assignment, though, do cover most of the biomes. You should be able to find "your" biome, even though it might go under a slightly different name. The key is that you understand what your biome is about. For example, it is easy to figure out that grasslands and prairies are much the same thing, once you know what a prairie is. Similarly, you will find information on deciduous forests under the term temperate forest.

Print Resources


Online Databases

Electric Library

How to search in eLibrary
for Biomes

Internet Resources

  1. World Biomes The West Tisbury School from Martha's Vineyard presents this fabulous resource, where you can click on each world biome to find out about its plants, animals, and climate. The maps at this site are especially useful for teaching the locations of world biomes.
  2. Major Biomes of the World Information about the world's major biomes: the tundra, boreal forest (taiga), temperate broadleaf deciduous forest, tropical broadleaf evergreen forest (rainforests), tropical savanna, temperate grasslands, desertscrub, and Mediterranean shrub. Descriptions include climate, vegetation, distribution, fauna, soil, growthforms, and Alpine expressions. Photos, maps, and a glossary are provided.
  3. Tour of Biomes offers very brief overviews
  4. The World's Biomes might very well be the best site for this assignment.
  5. Biomes from Thurston High School, Springfield, Oregon, presents brief descriptions and has some excellent photographs.
  6. Biomes of the World From the Missouri Botanical Gardens, this site provides information about all ecosystems and details within each ecosystem page. Desert example: desert animals and plants, the desert at night, causes of deserts, and types of deserts. Deciduous forest example: forest locations, types of trees, types of leaves, leaf identification guide, colors of specific leaves in the fall, forest animals and more.
  7. Community Learning Network Theme Pages: Although these pages seem to include a lot of information for you, you should search carefully, since many of the pages deal with teachers' lesson plans. However, your search might be worthwhile after you have used the sites listed above. One more note of caution: much of the time the site seems to be very slow in uploading. You might wish to consult this site last.
    1. Antarctic
    2. Arctic
    3. Drylands / Deserts
    4. Temperate Forests
    5. Tropical Rainforests
    6. Wetlands