Activity
Tramline

Desert Field Trip

For Students 3rd - 8th
Use this site to find out how deserts are formed, where the largest desert is located and if there are different types of deserts.
Handout
Center for Educational Technologies

Earth Floor: Biomes: Desert Plants

For Students 9th - 10th
Site contains information on desert plants and plant adaptations. Offers links to biomes, a biome summary, how to read a climograph and more!
Handout
World Wildlife Fund for Nature

World Wildlife Fund: Our Earth: Ecoregions: Habitats: Deserts

For Students 3rd - 5th
An overview of the climate conditions of deserts. Includes examples of plants and the adaptations that allow them to survive in the dry climate. Includes a link to information about animals that live in a desert habitat.
Handout
Curated OER

National Park Service: Arches National Park: Plants

For Students 9th - 10th
Information about the cacti, grasses, lichens, trees, shrubs, and wildflowers that grow in Arches National Park, located in Moab, Utah. Focus is placed on the adaptations of these plants that allow survival in a desert habitat.
Website
Nature Conservancy

Nature Conservancy: Planet Earth: Deserts and Aridlands

For Students 3rd - 8th
The desert areas in the United States that this organization is working to protect are portrayed through photographs and videos, showing the beauty of the landscapes and the diversity of life forms there.
Handout
Missouri Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden: Animals of the Desert

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about different types of animals that live in the desert biome such as the cactus wren, the desert lark, the dingo, the fat sand rat, the fennec fox, the Gila monster, and so on. Animal pictures and information is taken from the...
Handout
Center for Educational Technologies

Earth Floor: Desert Biome: Animals

For Students 9th - 10th
Site provides information on desert animals and animal adaptations. Offers links to desert plants and their adaptations, other biomes, and more.
Handout
Other

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum: How Plants Cope With the Desert Climate

For Students 9th - 10th
Museum provides an article on how plants can cope with desert climate due to their three adaptive strategies: succulence, drought tolerance and drought avoidance.
Handout
Curated OER

National Park Service: Explore Nature: Views: Sonoran Desert: Organ Pipe Cactus

For Students 9th - 10th
Snapshot reference on the Sonoran Desert organ pipe cactus describes its appearance, growth, and location.
eBook
Unite for Literacy

Unite for Literacy: Plants and Food: Great Green Giants

For Students 1st - 2nd
A picture book about a giant cactus called the saguaro. Includes audio narration in nine additional languages with text in English.
Handout
Other

Desert Gold: Desert Animals, Plants, and Rock Formation

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides information about desert animals, plants, and rock formations.
Handout
Other

Thurston High School: Sharryl Lattion and Melissa Femrite: Biomes: Desert

For Students 9th - 10th
Written for younger readers, this article reveals facts about animals and plants as well as health concerns for people in the desert environment.
Website
Other

Tom Schweich Home Page: Vegetation in the Desert

For Students 9th - 10th
This personal site features descriptions and photographic illustrations of California desert vegetation.
Handout
San Diego Zoo Global

San Diego Zoo: Carnivorous Plants

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the characteristics, soil requirements, and prey of carnivorous plants.
Handout
Science Struck

Science Struck: Desert Biome: A Guide to Its Animals and Plants

For Students 4th - 7th
Describes many of the plants and animals that live in deserts and their special adaptations that have enabled them to survive there. Also describes four types of deserts.
Handout
Science Struck

Science Struck: Mojave Desert Animals and Plants

For Students 4th - 8th
Describes characteristics and adaptations of plants and animals that are able to survive in the Mojave Desert and a list of each.
Unit Plan
The Wild Classroom

The Wild Classroom: Biomes of the World: Desert Biome

For Students 3rd - 8th
Learn all about the Desert biome. Find out about plants, animals, adaptations, and conservation efforts.
Website
University of Arizona

University of Arizona: Boyce Thompson Arboretum

For Students 9th - 10th
This Arizona-based state park features current information about its wildlife, wildflowers, plants and trees, gardens, and the like. Illustrated.
Article
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Habitat Network: Desert Cacti: Fruit Producing "Trees"

For Students 9th - 10th
Find out why native fruit-producing trees and shrubs are essential components of diverse habitats.
Graphic
Missouri Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden: Hot Deserts of the World

For Students 3rd - 8th
Find out about the sizes, physical features, and plant and animal life of some of the world's great deserts, including the Arabian, the Great Sandy, the Chihuahuan, the Kalahari, the Mojave, the Sahara, the Sonoran, and the Thar deserts.
Website
Curated OER

Bureau of Land Management: Alaska's Cold Desert

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the Arctic tundra biome of Alaska. A discussion of its characteristics, and the animals and the plants that live there.
Handout
Palomar Community College District

Wayne's World: Desert Varnish and Lichen Crust

For Students 9th - 10th
Lichens thrive in common and in very specialized and inhospitable climates. This clickable index site offers text and photographs of desert and mountain lichens.
Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network

Uen: Trb 4:5 Investigation 1 Wetlands, Forests & Deserts

For Teachers 4th
Learn about surface terrain and how plants and animals are affected by the temperatures and precipitation.
Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network

Uen: Trb 4:5 Investigation 5 Desert Dynamics

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders will understand how plants and animals adapt to their environment.

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