Submitted by Ann M. Conner

These are two activities that are part of a two week unit developed by Ann Conner, Laurie Beck, and Susan Brizzee called "Babushka Biomes". This unit integrates science and social
studies in the sixth grade, allowing students to identify the different biomes that exist in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. A documentary that goes well with this unit is Realm of the
Russian Bear. It is a PBS series that is six hours long, with each one hour segment focusing on a different biome in the former USSR.


Activity 1

HANDOUT

Objectives: Science (4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.8) Social Studies (4.1, 4.2)

Through research, students identify the variety of ecosystems located in the former Soviet Union. This is where the documentary on Russia"s biomes is very helpful, but if unavailable,
students can investigate on their own. Besides looking at books and encyclopedia, students may want to visit www.ncwiseowl.com and use the reference section to type in "biome".
One of the sites is "Biomes of the World" which gives a map of the Earth, pinpointing all of the ecosystems.

The graphic organizer I use for this activity comes from the sixth grade SS&C program used by science teachers at my school.


Activity 2
The Forecast for Today

HANDOUT

Objectives: Science (2.3, 2.6, 2.7, 2.9, 6.2) Social Studies (3.2, 4.1,4.2)

Math (3.1, 6.2)

This is a great partner or cooperative group activity that takes only a few minutes each day over a one or two week period. Students choose a city in the former Soviet Union and record
the high and low temperatures over a period of time. A fantastic website for this is http://weather.yahoo.com. This site allows you to choose a continent and country and then gives a long list of cities. It even allows students to click for Celsius or Fahrenheit. There are also satellite images that show precipitation over the past 24 hours.

This activity can also be done throughout the year to demonstrate how latitude and seasons effect the temperatures you gather on the website.

The research sheet used for this activity is taken from the AIMS activity packet used by math/science teachers at my school.



Some other great websites to incorporate climate and weather into your classroom are...

www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~dbaron/sat/ (international weather satellite images),
http://iri.ldeo.columbia.edu/ (International Research Institute climate predictions),
http:www.wmo.ch/ (World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency), and
www.weatherpoint.com (7 day forecast for any city in the US).