This complex exercise invites students to apply and consolidate their knowledge on ecology investigating abiotic environmental factors present in a biome they have not studied before: the desert. In particular, this exercise focuses on how desert animals are adapted to the abiotic environmental factors in their environment.

The exercise is designed to require  40 minutes of work. In addition to tasks and materials, this document also includes solutions to the tasks.

The following competencies are expected and get tested:

-        I can purposefully extract information from written sources.

-        I can reproduce acquired knowledge in a structured, coherent, selective way and in a manner suitable to the audience. 

-        I can make (a) fact(s) or circumstance(s) clear by describing the involved elements and pointing out causal correlations between them ( explain).

-        I can draw conclusions based on known facts and/or data in order to answer a biological question ( deduce).

-        I can describe graphs formally.

-        I can describe the data depicted in a graph. 

-        I can analyze and interpret the data depicted in a graph.

-        I can describe the influence the environmental factor water/ temperature/ light/ soil/ wind has on organisms, and, using specific examples, I can illustrate their adaptations and adjustments.  I can elucidate the ecological significance of these adaptations and adjustments.