This is the time of year for award ceremonies. Celebrities walk the red carpet, showing off their designer attire. The media is abuzz over the top candidates for each award.
After viewing the ‘Green Seas’ episode from the BBC series Blue Planet 2, the biology class was divided into groups and tasked with nominating organisms for four different categories:
Top Predator
Most Valuable Organism
Most Unusual Organism
Cleverest Creature
Check out the presentation above to see the nominees…and of course…the winners of each category (Click the ‘Full Screen Icon’ to get the full effect. Thankfully, there are no acceptance speeches.
Because of their isolation and smaller land size, islands are interesting and unique ecological locations. The CLHS biology class took a look at the ecology of a variety of islands from around the world.
Our biology class at CLHS examines different biological issues throughout the year. Fall is wildfire season in California. Months without significant rain coupled with seasonal winds, like the Santa Anas of the southern part of our state, make conditions ripe for wildfires. This Fall the class researched and put together this website about California wildfires.
October is traditionally the worst month for wildfires in California. This year October was pretty mild, but November made up for it. The Woolsey fire in the south and Camp fire in the north were two of the most significant fires in years. The Camp fire destroyed over 19,000 structures and has claimed at least 74 lives with hundreds still unaccounted for.
Grass is one of those organisms that we take for granted. Mowing the lawn is not a very popular chore. Yet seeds of grasses like wheat, rice, corn, and barley feed much of the world. The largest herds of animals on continents depend on grasses. Grass is truly a wonder of God’s creation! Working in groups, the biology class of CLHS produced some pages dealing with some of the major grasslands of the world. They were created with Adobe Spark and are very visual.
The United States is home to an extraordinary variety of life. This diverse collection of living things can further be divided into ecosystems.
A series of 12 stamp sheets by the USPS honored 12 of these ecosystems. The biology class took a closer look at some of the organisms that make up these ecosystems. Check out what they learned.
California is home to the tallest, largest, and oldest trees on the planet. We have some of the most amazing forests in the world. It’s surprising that so many of the trees we plant in our cities are not native California trees. The CLHS biology class put together this website of some of the trees that are true native Californians.
Visit the website here (or click the image above).
The southwestern United States is dominated by two large deserts. The Mojave (primarily in California) and the Sonoran (primarily in Arizona and Mexico).
While studying ecosystems, the CLHS biology class prepared this website on the plants and animals of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Each student prepared a page for one plant and one animal.
From 1999-2010, the U.S. Postal Service released a series of stamp sheets on ecosytems of the United States. Ons sheet was released each year. These stamp sheets featured paintings of plants and animals from an ecosytem compressed into a single image.
While studying ecosytems, the CLHS biology class took a closer look at some of the organisms in these stamps.
Check out what they found.
A showcase for student work from California Lutheran High School