Grade Range
4th-8th
Group Size
4
Active Time
60 minutes
Total Time
60 minutes
Area of Science
Geology
Key Concepts
rainforests, using maps, biomes
Credits

Overview

Map of world biomes

"Global Biomes" © 2012 NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center

In this activity, students will compare maps showing worldwide temperature, precipitation, biodiversity, and soil nutrition levels to predict where on our planet rainforests are located.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:
  • 4-ESS2-2. Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth's features.
  • 5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways in which the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
  • MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices Disciplinary Core Ideas Crosscutting Concepts
Developing and Using Models. Develop and/or use models to describe and/or predict phenomena.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena, using logical reasoning, mathematics, and/or computation.

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena.
 ESS2-A: Earth Materials and Systems. Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, living organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller particles and move them around.
 Cause and Effect. Events that occur together with regularity might or might not be a cause and effect relationship.

Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.

Systems and System Models. A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes, and outputs, and energy, matter, and information flows within systems.
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Grade Range
4th-8th
Group Size
4
Active Time
60 minutes
Total Time
60 minutes
Area of Science
Geology
Key Concepts
rainforests, using maps, biomes
Credits
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