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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.
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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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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!
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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Interactive
PBS

Pbs Kids: Plum Landing: Explore the Outback

For Students 1st - 4th
In this interactive game, players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph desert plants and animals in the Australian outback. Through the clues provided, players learn about desert ecosystems, the plants and...
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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.
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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.
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Handout
Encyclopedia of Earth

Encyclopedia of Earth: Biomes: Etosha Pan Halophytics

For Students 9th - 10th
Article on the Etosha Pan saline desert in Namibia, which is what remains of a lake from the Pliocene Epoch. Describes its geography, climate, plants and animals, its conservation status, and threats to its biodiversity. (Published:...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Handout
Science Struck

Science Struck: Facts About the Sahara Desert

For Students 4th - 7th
Discusses the physical geography of the Sahara Desert, the climate, its landforms, the plants and animals that live there, and some of the people who live there or visit.
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Interactive
PBS

Pbs Kids: Feed the Dingo

For Students 3rd - 6th
Help build the Australian desert ecosystem by filling it with appropriate plants and animals.
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Website
Other

Greatest Places: Namib

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore the Namib Desert and learn about its location, the Skeleton Coast, mirages, and general information about this home to the highest sand dunes in the world.
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Article
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Habitat Network: The Special Nature of Arid Landscapes

For Students 9th - 10th
Find out how to make the most of a desert environment in order to foster a wide array of species diversity.
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Website
Other

The Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The Centennial Museum is an academic support and outreach unit of the University of Texas at El Paso focusing on the natural history and the indigenous, colonial, pre-urban, and folk cultures of the border regions of the southwestern...
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Handout
Utah Education Network

Uen: Utah's Plants and Animals Do You Know Where I Live?

For Students 9th - 10th
Can you figure out what types of biomes different organisms belong in? You'll be presented with a variety of organisms and asked which of three biomes they belong in.
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Activity
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: School Publishers: Exploring Ecosystems

For Students 3rd - 8th
Compare and contrast three very different ecosystems - the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Florida Everglades, and the Arctic Coastal Plain in Alaska. Learn what makes each of them unique, and about the adaptations plants and animals had...
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Article
Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies

Mocomi: Sahara Desert Facts and Information

For Students 3rd - 8th
Provides interesting facts about the Sahara Desert including its climate, plants, animals, and landscape.