Mini Desert Research Project

This week we will begin researching desert ecosystems. 

The kids will be researching..

What is it like in a desert ecosystem? (Thinking about the climate at night vs during the day, cold deserts?)

Animals of the desert

The third sub-heading I want them to research is totally up to them. What interests them about the desert?

Resources

Eyewitness Video--Deserts Seen in class, students took notes

Desert animals

http://www.desertanimals.net/

Deserts

http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/desert/whatis.htm

Biome life deserts

http://staff.concord.org/~btinker/GL/web/exploring_life/ecosystems/desert.htm

Desert USA--Desert Life
http://www.desertusa.com/life.html

Desert Wikipedias Site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert

Enchanted Learning Deserts
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/desert/desert.shtml

Desert Slideshow
http://www.slideshare.net/Michellesoto/3rd-grade-ecosystem

National Geographic Site on Deserts
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desert-profile/

The Sonoran Desert, Arizona Upland
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/exploring_ecosystems/desert.html

Desert Food Chain
http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/desert/hot-desert-chain.html

Animals of the Desert--great pictures not much info
http://mlbean.byu.edu/Portals/26/docs/Desert%20Adaptations.pdf

People living in the Desert

https://sites.google.com/site/geographysaharadesert/how-people-ive-in-the-sahara-desert
and
http://library.thinkquest.org/26634/desert/people.htm

Death Valley
1) http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/death-valley-national-park/

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley

Plants of the Desert
1) http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_plant_page.htm

2)

Helmer Nature Center Field Trip

Tuesday our class traveled all the way to the western part of Irondequoit to visit the Helmer Nature Center.  Deep in the forest of the Helmer, our kids learned about macro invertebrates.  Our creeks and streams are full of these macro invertebrates. The kids learned that some of them can only live in pure clean water. Some can stand a bit of pollution and very few can live in polluted water. 

After a session learning about them in the classroom, our class traveled down to a creek to take water samples. 

Here the group is listening to instructions. 

 

In this group of pictures I was pollution and the kids were different macro invertebrates. Depending on which one they were assigned, they had different ways of moving. One group, who were pretending to be an invertebrate that cannot stand pollution, had to move by hopping in a potatoe sack. They were easy for me to catch. 

In this group of pictures the kids are taking water samples and using a chart to see what we found. One of the kids found dragonfly nymphs. When we got back from Helmer we researched the dragonfly. So cool to see their babies in the creek!

Another picture shows the chart of possible macro invertebrates in the creek. The kids spent a little time looking up some of them on our IPads

Last, on our way home we almost hit a wild turkey with the bus! This guy was crossing Titus Ave near Culver rd.