Background: A biome is an ecosystem that covers a large geographic area where life forms live due to the specific climate in the area. For example, biomes are tundra, forest, grassland, desert, or mountains.
Program Overview: This activity is intended to be used by students or families in a museum of human and natural history. It is based on the popular game of BINGO, but focuses on characteristics of 5 biomes/ecosystems.
Objectives:
1. To introduce to students/families characteristics of different biomes
2. To build observation skills of the dioramas among students/families who visit the Museum
3. To make comparisons between different environments
4. To have some fun while learning about different environments
Geography Standards Alignment:
Place (physical and human characteristics)
Human/Environmental Interaction (relationship within places)
Movement (humans interacting on Earth)
Materials:
Copies of the Biome Bingo sheet (enough for each student in the class)
Crayon for each student
Word list (on the chalkboard or on a transparency)
Activity:
1. Prior to the visit to the Museum, place the word list on the board or on a transparency.
2. Distribute to each student a Biome Bingo Sheet.
3. Have the students select their favorite words, or words which with they are familiar to write in the boxes on their Biome Bingo Sheets. Each square must have a word in it. Make sure the students mix up the words and do not write them in the boxes in the order on the word list.
4. Go to the Museum with the Biome Bingo Sheet and a crayon.
5. As a group visit the Desert Diorama (on the 2nd floor or the 3rd floor of the Museum). Have students observe this scene. Discuss what they see. Have students cross off the words on their Biome Bingo Cards when they see something in the diorama that matches their card. Repeat the procedure at the Grasslands Diorama (on the 2nd floor or the 3rd floor of the Museum), Rain Forest Diorama (1st floor and 3rd floor of the Museum), Tundra Dioramas (3rd floor of the Museum), and Woodlands Diorama (2nd floor).
6. The first student who gets four corners, or a diagonal, across or down covered, wins. If time permits go back to visit the dioramas and try for a coverall.
Extensions:
1. For elementary students, use pictures of the animals/plants/etc. instead of words.
2. Back at the school, have students groups words from their Biome Bingo Card into categories of Desert, Grassland, Rain Forest, Tundra and Woodlands. Have all students group their words into the 5 categories. Ask students what do the words have in common? Which biome do they live in?
Biome Bingo Word List
Desert Grassland Rain Forest
Sonoran Desert East Africa Costa Rica
Sahara Desert Okavango Delta Amazon River
Kalahari Desert elephant Congo River
Arizona waterhole Brazil
Namib Desert trees with no leaves gorilla
Africa termite nest blue butterfly
Australia grasses jaguar
Tallest sand dunes zebra vines
oryx lion waterfall
springbok warthogs piranha
San people
Hopi/Navaho
Tuareg
cactus
watermelon
tarantula
snake
trees
tundra woodlands
Greenland Wisconsin
Alaska snow shoes
Innuit wigwam
Lap landers porcupine quills
fur coat trees with leaves
moose rice
kayak beaver
umiak birch bark canoe
ulu drum
ice fishing pow wow
igloo bead work
ice river
cold fall season
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Program Overview: This activity can be used to introduce the place names and a unique feature of each place in The Greatest Places IMAX film. After students view The Greatest Places, this activity will encourage students to find out an equivalent greatest place in their home state.
Objectives:
1. To help students see connections between the places in The Greatest Places IMAX and
their greatest places in their own state.
2. To build map reading skills
3. To introduce/review the places in The Greatest Places IMAX to students
Geography Standards Alignment: Location (position on the Earth’s surface)
Greatest Places IMAX Theme: Local connections, human connections
Materials: Topographic map of Wisconsin
Prep: Have students see The Greatest Places IMAX Film
Activity:
1. Write each of the following words on a separate piece of paper.
Tibet Amazon Iguazu Falls Namib Desert2. There are 14 pieces of paper. Give each student, or if the class is large, divide the group into 14 units. Give each unit a piece of paper. Have them walk around and try to find the place that matches with its unique characteristic.Okavango Delta Madagascr Greenland
tallest mountain on earth most expansive watershed
falls 4 times as big as Niagara Falls highest sand dunes in the world
largest inland river only place in the world to have lemurs that live in the wild
releases 10,000 to 15,000 icebergs each year
3. After the units have matched up, have them locate their place on the world map.
4. Have each unit share their place name, unique characteristic and location on the world map.
5. After students see The Greatest Places IMAX film, have them look at a state map. Have them identify the following:
the tallest spot in the state evidence of glaciers
the longest river place that has the nearest sand or sand dunes
the nearest waterfall
something unique only to your state
Program Title: How did places get their names?
Background: Places in The Greatest Places IMAX have interesting names. The meaning of their names helps to understand a little bit better about the location, physical characteristics and human interactions.
This activity helps students to learn about the meaning of the place names in The Greatest Places IMAX and introduces students to investigate the place names in their own community.
Objectives:
1. To introduce students to the place names of The Greatest Places IMAX
2. To help students understand that sometime places are named for physical characteristics, human interaction characteristics
3. To focus students attention while riding the bus en route to see The Greatest Places IMAX
Geography Standards Alignment: Place (physical and human characteristics)
Greatest Places IMAX Theme: Local connections, human connections
Materials:
Copy the Connections sheet enough for each student
Activity:
1. On the bus, distribute the Connections Sheet to each student.
2. Have them draw a line connecting the place name to the meaning of its name.
3. Tell the students to keep the sheet as they are going into the IMAX.
4. After the IMAX, have students make corrections based on their observations and the narrative that they heard in The Greatest Places IMAX.
5. Back at school, have students research place names of their community. Were streets named after famous historical figures in the community? Were cities named after American Indian inventions? Were rivers named after physical characteristics?
Draw a line connecting the place name on the left with the meaning of it on the right.
| Skeleton Coast | From a South American Indian word meaning "Great Waters" |
| Iguazu Falls | From the NAMA language meaning "bare place" |
| Greenland | Named by a Spanish explorer who met the native people and mistakenly called them "amazons" |
| Amazon | Named by a viking explorer who saw the icy landscape and called it this to encourage colonists |
| Namib Desert | Its name in Chinese means "land of snowy mountain and healing herbs" |
| Tibet | Because of the dangerous fog, ships and inattentive whales can often be found on the sandy beach |
Draw a line connecting the place name on the left with the meaning of it on the right.
| Skeleton Coast | From a South American Indian word meaning "Great Waters" |
| Iguazu Falls | From the NAMA language meaning "bare place" |
| Greenland | Named by a Spanish explorer who met the native people and mistakenly called them "amazons" |
| Amazon | Named by a viking explorer who saw the icy landscape and called it this to encourage colonists |
| Namib Desert | Its name in Chinese means "land of snowy mountain and healing herbs" |
| Tibet | Because of the dangerous fog, ships and inattentive whales can often be found on the sandy beach |