Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Before completing your post, review the Week 1: Biomes & Diversity (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. interactive video, which is designed to assist you in understanding more about this week’s topic and to help you organize your initial post.  Also, watch the video “Choosing Articles and Revising Searches (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.,” which defines the difference between scholarly, reputable, and non-reputable resources.

As you have learned in the readings, extinction is a natural selection process and humans are often responsible for accelerating this process. In your initial post this week, address whether or not we as humans should be concerned with the extinction rate, and justify your decision. Additionally, discuss whether or not humans should strive to preserve representative samples of all biomes on the planet, and if so, how that might be accomplished.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Utilize at least two scholarly or reputable resources and your textbook to support your claims. Cite your sources in APA format. Quoted text should constitute no more than ten percent of your post.  Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7.

In this class, you have three tutoring services available: Paper Review, Live Chat, and Tutor E-mail. Click on the Writing Center (AWC) tab in the left-navigation menu, in your online course, to learn more about these tutoring options and how to get help with your writing.