School › Deserts
Deserts
A desert is not always hot and not always sandy: the biggest deserts on Earth are icy, and most deserts are rock and gravel. Find out why some places get almost no rain, why the desert night can be freezing after a baking day, and how plants and animals manage with so little water. Three ages, each with a text, an experiment, a game, a quiz, a printable worksheet and a teacher sheet.
Ages 6–7Life in the desertDeserts are the driest places on Earth. Some are hot, some are cold, and many are not sandy at all! Meet a cactus that keeps a water bottle inside, and a rat that never needs a drink.Ages 10–11Deserts: why so dry, and how life copesWhy does it hardly ever rain in some places? Find out how air, mountains and clear skies make deserts, why desert nights are cold, and run a fair test on how shape helps a plant save water.Ages 15–16Deserts: water balance, energy and adaptationCompare definitions of a desert, convert rainfall and evaporation into the same units, explain huge day–night temperature swings with an energy budget, and measure how surface area controls water loss.