taskU2.html

Your task for this unit is to gather information about the Earth System, learn about the components of the system, and explore interactions between the components (also called spheres). You will summarize the information by creating webpages about the spheres.

The Task is your overall goal for the Unit. A series of Activities will help you attain the Goal and accomplish the Task.
The Rubric's cube symbol suggests the task provides a challenge for you to deepen your understanding of science.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

Dromedary Caravan in the Dunes near
Nouakchott, MAURITANIA

                                                         In this country on the edge of the Sahara - the
                                                         world's largest sand desert, covering 3 million
                                                         square miles (7.8 million km2) - dromedaries,
                                                         animals adapted to the extreme local
                                                         conditions, make up an important part of the
                                                         domestic livestock. Mauritania, which is 90
                                                         percent desert, is particularly vulnerable to the
                                                         consequences of human actions on the
                                                         environment. The circumference of these great
                                                         dunes often feature vegetation that is naturally
                                                         adapted to the aridity, particularly in proximity to
                                                         the slightly less arid regions where people
                                                         live.

yab@yannarthusbertrand.com