✏ Writing Assignment
Choose one of the biomes that you will be learning about this week (arctic tundra, coniferous forest, deciduous forest, desert, grasslands, aquatic, rainforest) OR one aspect of one of them (just make sure you will be able to get enough information about what you choose) and while you’re watching the videos and doing the readings, take notes on it with the mind mapping/cluster method. Make sure you have at least 3 subtopics and 2 details about each subtopic.
Know
Do ALL of the following:
- Print this month’s notecards on cardstock and cut them apart. Study them and be prepared for a notecard game in class. You can find them here.
- Print and read the following talk by Pres. Russell M Nelson “Peacemakers Needed“. Mark your favorite parts and come to class prepared for a discussion.
- Watch this video about the Ecosystems & Biomes (20 m).
- Watch this video about Biodiversity (2 m)
- Watch this video about Symbiosis (4 m)
- Print a blank map of the world (here’s a good one) and label and color in the 7 biomes with different colors and glue it in your commonplace book
- Go to the library and check out 3-5 children’s books about the one biome you would like to study. (You can also look at books you already have at home or research on the internet if you can’t get to the library.) Read them and take notes in your commonplace book. (Also remember to do cluster notes for writing class.)
- Explore around this website for at least 10 minutes for beautiful pictures and information on different biomes.
- Choose one of the following scientists and sign up for an in-class presentation on him/her in this doc. Study the person you chose and write down 10 interesting facts about them that aren’t on the notecard, including how they impacted the world with what they discovered or built. Using the 10 interesting facts you learned, prepare a creative and interesting presentation for class on him/her. Come prepared to present it to the class.
- Maria Mitchell
- Louis Pasteur
- Gregor Mendel
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Alfred Nobel
Understand
Choose ONE of the following and be prepared to share in class:
- Choose a set of living things that have a symbiotic relationship. Here are some examples if you get stuck. Research and learn about them and how they help each other. Get Creative! Write a poem, song or create an original piece of art about the symbiotic relationship you studied. Be prepared to present in class.
- Create a 3-D diorama of the biome you learned about and bring it to class to explain and display.
- Make a travel poster to the biome you learned about. Include vivid language and details as well as pictures that will make us all want to visit there. Include information like where this biome is found. Bring it to class to explain and display.
Become
The following is an excerpt from a fireside talk given by Al Fox Carraway, “The Tattooed Mormon”
“This happened three years ago; my very first day in Utah, after the long, uncomfortable and terrifying trek across the country by myself to a new place where I didn’t know a single person. I moved, against my will, because I knew that’s what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. I moved regardless of how hard it was and regardless of the fact I had no idea why I needed to be here. And I was scared. Not just because it was new but because of the warnings I received from so many people: “Al, don’t move to Utah. No one will like you. Al, if you move to Utah, you will NOT fit in.” That was really hard to hear, and I tried my hardest to ignore those remarks.
So here I am, my very first day across the country in my new home, and what am I suppose to do now? I haven’t the slightest idea. Heavenly Father didn’t tell me that much yet. I ended up at Cafe Rio we don’t have those back home and you have to know I have a thing for tacos. So, you have to visualize this, you know how the line kind of snakes around, so you are in a big group of people while waiting? Well, I was right in the middle of it. And I was holding a church book in my hands. It was more of a grasp/hug to this book; it was a biography on one of the prophets. And while I was waiting in line I felt very tense. I could feel stares in every direction; it felt like lasers. I stood there stiff trying to ignore it but I couldn’t. I could physically feel the stares from everyone. Finally, the guy next to me tapped my on the arm and said, “You know … it’s pretty ironic you look the way you do holding that book.” My heart broke. Stomach knotted. Eyes teary.
It took a bit for me to react. So many emotions ran through me, and I had to decide which one I was going to express to him. What I so badly wanted to do was to turn to him and yell. Yell and cry to him, “Do you know what I just went through?! Do you know how hard this is! Do you know who and what I had to give up to be here, and I don’t even know why!”
How badly I wanted to walk around everywhere with my scriptures so that the ‘lasers’ would stop. And they didn’t. I so badly wanted people to see me for who I’ve become. I literally craved more than anything for people to just know that I was trying. That’s it. That I was trying. And they couldn’t, and it hurt me so badly that it became physically exhausting.
How easy it would have been to yell at him. How easy it would have been to get mad. To get offended. How easy it would have been to not just take it out on him or the people of the city as a whole. But furthermore, how easy it would have been to be upset and confused towards Heavenly Father for leading me to such a place with a lack of so many answers, answers that would have been very comforting during those experiences that so frequently occurred. How hard it was at this time to have just been baptized, still with such a small sliver of knowledge of the gospel and feel that. To not have any boys talk to me because they are looking for temple worthy girls. Because they are looking for someone I do not exactly portray, that they didn’t even talk to me.
Yeah, how easy it would have been to feel and react that way.
But I fought it. I decided otherwise.
I turned to this man in Cafe Rio. Introduced myself. Shook his hand. I smiled so big and simply said, “I just got baptized. This is my first day here!” I said it with happiness. I said it with pride. With confidence.
How different things would have gone if I didn’t do that.
I had to make a decision. And it’s a decision I have to make every day. One you have to make every day. Several times a day. And what that is, to choose to get mad. Choose to get offended. Bothered. Confused. Or … not.
The decision to keep going. The decision to be happy and follow the Spirit and counsel given … or not. Choose to have faith. Choose to trust. Or not. What it came down to, and what it always will come down to, is choose God. Or not.
And I already chose who I wanted to follow, didn’t I?
That is what happens when you get baptized.
To keep in mind, always, that everyone is at different spots in life. Everyone needs to learn different things, different ways. And to know that I could maybe be the one to help them learn. That you could be. To not get mad and prove them right, but to be me and prove otherwise. It’s a question I often thought of following my baptism and my family’s disapproval, and that is, “How do you teach someone that doesn’t want to listen?” and “How do you teach someone that you may never get to speak with or meet?” And after much thought and prayer, I came up with an answer. Teach by example. And what happiness that has brought! How many incredible people I have met because of that decision. How many incredible experiences! How many blessings.”
Think about how you interact with others in this world. Do you tend to judge people by their appearance or actions? What would the Savior have you do? Journal for 5 minutes on how the biodiversity in the biomes and ecosystems in the world keep them strong and healthy and how this compares to the diversity we see in our neighborhoods and communities. How can our differences make us stronger? What does the Savior say about love and how can we live this law better?
