letter

Dear Students,

The Nature Conservancy is one of the leading conservation organizations working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters.We address serious conservation threats. As man continues to populate the planet, biomes containing unique species of plants and animals are being impacted. Our organization is working to solve issues such as pollution, poaching, and deforestation.

Until these issues are solved, we feel a need to develop a nature refuge that protects the animals/plants from the different biomes around the planet. We understand that your school has a strong interest in the preservation of the species. In fact, your school resides on property which is a preserve and you have firsthand knowledge of the diversity and interdependence of the species within an ecosystem.

Since you have personal experience with a backyard preserve, we wish to have your input on a refuge that would include animals/plants from different biomes. Please accept the challenge to research, plan, and design a Biome Nature Refuge. We feel this will work best if your class split into teams in order to create 6 different biome areas to house that biome's animals/plants.

To make this easier, your teachers have organized the steps to this project within this Wiki. The Wiki is split into two different areas, the Build-a-Biome WebQuest pages and the Student Biomes work pages. You will follow the steps within the WebQuest pages and then you will be posting your work to your specific biome in the Student Biomes work pages.

Thank you for participating in this project. We will be asking your teachers and principal for feedback concerning your work. So get involved, work hard, and have fun! We can't wait to see your presentations!

Sincerely, The Nature Conservancy