1)Today you will watch a few short videos to observe biodiversity of animals and plants in different ecosystems. You will think about the adaptations that have allowed plants and animals to evolve and adapt to life on land by observing structures and thinking about how they relate to the function of a particular organism. These structures allow the organisms to overcome the challenges of life in the ecosystem to which they have evolved.

2) Be able to describe evolutionary features that allow plants and animals to live in desert environments. You will need to identify three for plants and three for animals.*

3) Be able to describe evolutionary features that allow plants and animals to live in tropical environments. You will need to identify three for plants and three for animals.*

*If you cannot find all of the adaptations you need from the videos, you can look for other resources.

Additional plant adaptations can be found in Appendixes A and B of this document.

4) Use your knowledge of plant and animal adaptations to design an organism suitable for a particular environment.

Note: You get to choose the organism (plant, animal etc.) and the environment, with exceptions. You cannot choose tropical forest or desert.

a) Identify the key environmental constraints of the environment. Design an organism with adaptations to deal with those constraints. Sketch and describe your organism.