BHP Lesson 18: Biospheres: Our Habitat

15 Apr 2020

The biosphere is an amazing place, serving as the home for all the living things on our planet. It provides us with air to breathe, plus plants, animals, and water to survive. We live in the comfort zone, but what would happen if we were pushed to the extremes of the biosphere? We’ll explore that question today with Alphonse the camel.

Driving Question: How do Earth and life interact?

Think about a typical day in your life. How do you interact with the environment around you? How does the environment around you affect the way that you live? Humans have settled in places on Earth that are suitable for living. We tend to live near sources of water, near rich soil for farming, and where the climate isn’t too hot or too cold. The environment shapes our lives, but our lifestyles are also changed by the planet around us!

Word of the Day: Biosphere

Definition: The entire network of life on Earth.
The biosphere is the region of Earth where we find living organisms. Within the biosphere, there are a variety of ecosystems on land, below the sea, and even in the air. From a zoomed out view, the biosphere includes all of our habitats and all of their complex biological and geological relationships.

Lesson

Go to Khan Academy and do the activity, Living in the Extremes of the Biosphere.
In this activity, you’re going to describe what it’s like for humans to live in the extremes of the biosphere—either underwater or in the upper atmosphere. Think about what it might be like if the biosphere we currently inhabit were to change.

Historian’s Journal Prompt

How is the coronavirus changing our biosphere?
Since the pandemic began, humans have had to make some pretty extreme lifestyle changes. We drive less, walk more, and in general, don’t travel very far. As a result, our carbon emissions are changing drastically. Go seek out some information about how ecosystems around the world are changing (sometimes for the better!) because of the coronavirus pandemic.