Create Your Own Continent

Deserts, rain forests, wetlands, and other climates are not random occurrences. All climates are dictated by the temperature and the amount of precipitation that the area receives. These two occurrences are further dictated by:  the nearness to center of a landmass  a large body of water  latitude  altitude  ocean currents  prevailing wind direction  location relative to a large mountain range. Your assignment is to create a fictional continent of any shape or size. Remember that climates are created by very specific factors. You must keep these factors in mind when you are creating your continent. Also, you may be creative in designing your continent but you must stick to scientific facts and principles when working with land forms, ocean currents, plate tectonics, and air masses. In other words, you can’t make up or change the laws that govern how these processes work. You can, however, create a whole new continent where the application of these processes looks entirely different than on Earth. For example: convection currents and density still have to work the same way but you can apply them to your plate tectonics effect to create a gigantic sinkhole that has filled with water but is so deep that it has fostered the development of different kinds of life forms that we see here on Earth.

The continent must contain the minimum of the following: 1 warm water ocean current 1 cold water ocean current 5 climate types of your own choosing – see the handout 1 mountain range 5 other landforms of your own choosing – ex: volcano, river, lake, fault zones, delta, plains – see me if there is something else you want to use 1 area of plate activity 2 global wind patterns – you will have to do a little research on this

PRODUCT: A documentary or magazine or model. If you have other ideas you can ask me about them.

FOR EACH PRODUCT YOU MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING PARTS: 1. You must have maps/drawings/pictures in each of your products. 2. Answers to the questions for the geologist, oceanographer, meteorologist, and biologist. 3. Each student needs 3 sources. Do a bibliography compiling all the sources for the group. 4. Within each product, it must be clear which group member did which part. Geologist - This person will answer these questions: 1. How does the mountain range affect the climate on your continent? 2. What land features did you choose to add to your continent? 3. How do each of these 5 land features affect the climate on your continent? 4. Describe the mineral continent of your continent/land features and how that affects the land features formed. 5. Describe and explain the plate activity on your continent. 6. Draw a topographic map of the continent – show the contour lines. Make a key. Include all the land features.

Oceanographer – This person will answer these questions: 1. Explain how the latitudes affect the oceans in that area and then the climate. 2. Describe the ocean currents around the continent. 3. You must describe or illustrate the coastal ocean climate – on both east and west coast. As a part of this you will need to describe how the ocean currents affect the coastal climate. 4. Include a drawing showing the ocean currents that abuts the continent and the direction of the current is flowing, the temperature, the depth, the width, the salinity, how fast the current is flowing. Make sure the map/drawing includes latitudes covered. 5. Describe and analyze how the ocean current that abuts the continent affects marine life along the coastline. 6. Devise a tidal system and describe its impact on the coastline.

Meteorologist – This person will answer these questions: 1. What is the climate in each of 5 climate types you chose for your continent? This includes amount of rainfall, temperature, seasons, amount of day and night, etc. 2. Explain how the latitude affects the weather on your continent. 3. Describe the atmosphere over your continent. You can create layers in the atmosphere or leave it as just one layer. Explain the function of the layer/layers of your atmosphere. These can be different than the ones we studied for Earth but that still have to make sense and not be silly or non-believable. 4. Describe the wind currents in the atmosphere that affect the climate. Ex: jet stream 5. Create a weather map of one day in the life of your continent. You must show 3 different types of fronts, 3 different types of precipitation, temperatures, and high and low pressure systems.

Biologist – This person will answer these questions: 1. What types of organisms live in the 5 different climate areas? Types of plants and animals. 2. Describe these organisms. Need at least 10 different organisms – 2 per climate area – 1 plant and 1 animal. 3. Draw a picture of each of these organisms in color. Specifically show all parts and label. 4. Describe how these organisms are specifically adapted physically to meet the environmental challenges of the climate areas they live in. Include temperature, humidity, vegetation, seasons, amount of precipitation and what type of precipitation in your analysis 5. List 2 dominant genes and 2 recessive genes for each plant and animal and explain how they work together to give the plant/animal it’s characteristics. Use Punnett Squares to explain if necessary

Documentary must have: A map of what the continent looks like with a key, topographic map, weather map, ocean current map. All questions answered or that information included in the documentary. Pictures of the 10 different organisms. Pictures of the land features. Bibliography

Model must have: Paperwork with the appropriate maps/drawings/pictures. All questions answered thoroughly and clearly. Must be done on the computer. Pictures of the 10 different organisms. Pictures of the land features. Physical model showing all landforms, topography, plate activity. Bibliography.

Magazine must have: Paperwork with the appropriate maps/ drawings/pictures. All information in the questions presented thoroughly and clearly. Pictures of the 10 different organisms. Pictures of the land features. Bibliography. Must have table of contents with page numbers for each article and who did it.