Desert Discoveries
Built for the Desert
The saguaro cactus has an amazing ability to survive in a harsh environment. Learners identify the many adaptations for desert life that the saguaro employs. They look at each part of the saguaro and determine what role it plays in the...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in...
Curated OER
The Living Environment
Fourth graders make a chart of animals and plants that live in either the desert, the ocean, or the tundra. In this environment lesson plan, 4th graders work in groups to discover characteristics needed for these animals to live in that...
Curated OER
Land Environments
In this land environments worksheet, students will complete a table by filling in the climate, dominant plants, and characteristic animals for 6 different habitats.
Curated OER
Mountain Barriers
Students examine geographical change. In this mountain barriers lesson, students conduct an experiment to discover how mountains affect surrounding land. Students draw conclusions on how change in land affects plant and animal life.
University of Connecticut
Building Your Own Biosphere
On September 26, 1991, four women and four men entered the scientific experiment, Biosphere 2; the doors were sealed for two years in order to study the interactions of a biosphere. In the activity, scholars explore biospheres by...
Curated OER
Milkweed and Monarch Butterfly Mania
Students explore Earth science by completing a worksheet in class. In this botany lesson, students identify the relationship between the Milkweed plant and the butterflies which regularly feed on its nutrients. Students visit a list of...
Curated OER
The Desert Alphabet Book
Pupils use a book to discover an interesting fact from the desert using each letter of the alphabet. Using a United States map, they identify the meanings of symbols and locate deserts within the U.S. In groups, they participate in...
Curated OER
Opening Doors to Social Studies with Children's Literature: The Desert Alphabet Book
Students explore the geography of the United States. In this social studies lesson, students identify the major deserts on a map of the United States.
Curated OER
Deserts Around the World
Second graders explore the deserts around the world. They use a map and locate America on the map. Students discuss and identify the characteristics of deserts and differentiate the meanings of the word desert and dessert. Students...
Curated OER
Sonoran Desert
In this Sonoran Desert worksheet, students read and analyze a letter that Jeremy wrote to his grandmother and then complete the picture that follows using information about the desert they learned from the letter.
Curated OER
Deserts Puzzle
In this geography learning exercise, students complete a crossword puzzle referring all to deserts. They identify the various types of desert land and what plants and animals can survive in these lands. Also, students identify the people...
Curated OER
Taking Count of Biodiversity
Here is a well-designed lesson on biodiversity that should intrigue your charges. In it, pupils compare a natural desert area to a school field to see how habitat destruction affects species diversity. Groups set up transects and collect...
Curated OER
What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Air
Students conduct an experiment to determine whether plants need air in order to survive and grow. They discuss natural resources, analyze slides, and observe and record data from the experiment.
Curated OER
Mesozoic Murals
Students create a mural of one of the Mesozoic Periods. In this geologic timeline instructional activity, students will research the plants and animals that lived in the Mesozoic Era in order to create a mural to scale that represents...
Curated OER
Desert Views - First Impressions: Travelers on the Gila Trail
Students draw animals and plants that are described to them as they read passages of people who traveled across the Gila Trail in the Southwest. For this Gila Trail lesson plan, students also write a letter describing a plant or animal...
Curated OER
Introducing Habitats and Biodiversity
Young scholars identify habitats in Arizona. Theys define and illustrate a food web, and explain the importance fo biodiversity.
Curated OER
Creating a Pollinator Garden
Students build a pollination garden. For this pollination lesson, students read directions and build a pollinator garden that will produce flowering plants for pollinator organisms to use in pollination of other plants.
Curated OER
Weather and Water in Ghana
Learners research the rainy and dry season to investigate Africa's weather. In this African weather lesson, students use the given websites to research the rainy and dry seasons of Ghana in Africa. Learners then read stories about life...
Curated OER
Don't Call Me A Pig
First graders explore wildlife and habitats in the Arizona desert. Throughout a classroom discussion, 1st graders observe pictures of the desert and animals that live there. As they go on a nature walk around the school, students...
Calculated Industries
Army Survival
Intended as a reference tool for US Army personnel, this application can be used in a classroom that is studying historic and current wars or as part of an outdoor education or wilderness survival course. Some of the subjects addressed...
Curated OER
Research: Habitats in the Chihuahuan Desert
In this desert habitat worksheet, students follow the links to research information about the Chihuahua desert. Students fill out the graphic organizer with facts about the habitat, animals and plants of this region.
Curated OER
Desert Water Keepers
Third graders identify ways that cactus plants survive in the desert. They distinguish between water acquisition and water conservation and create their own plant that could survive in a desert climate.
Curated OER
A Virtual Museum of the Mojave Desert
Students study deserts and the plants, animals, and people who inhabit them. In groups, they create their own stories about the inhabitants of the Mojave desert.