EXPLORING THE DESERT ON THE INTERNET

INTRODUCTION:

As part of the Social Studies curriculum which emphasizes Regions of the World, fourth graders study desert regions. The following Internet sites are recommended as places to gather more data about deserts in the United States.

While studying Desert Regions in Social Studies, teachers and students can use information gathered from these sites in math and science classes.

• Temperatures can be compared/contrasted, and graphed.
• Distances from home to various desert locations can be calculated.
• Animals and plants can be studied for how they are adapted to desert life.
• Desert plants can be grown in the classroom.
• This activity lends itself to the the use of thematic units integrated with the curriculum.

LANGUAGE ARTS

• Spelling lists can be generated from stories/subjects read about.
• Writing skills can be also taught while the students work on their prose or poetry which deals with the area being investigated.
• An excellent book to read orally to the class is Lost in the Devil's Desert by Gloria Skurzynski.
• More readings and poetry can be found on the net in Voyage to Another Universe by Karen M. Strom.

MATH

Because the fourth grade students have been taught the basic skills of addition and subtraction, this will be the first of the math integrated into the unit.

• Using teacher supplied information obtained daily from the National Weather Bureau, the students can find the differences in the temperatures of the previous day between Providence and any of several cities in the American Southwest.
  They will have learned that this is the primary site for desert areas in the United States.

  The data gathered then can be graphed to show the differences between the home and the area being studied.

  This can further be applied globally by using the network to find temperatures in deserts in other parts of the world and keep graphs on those differences also.

  Fractions can also be taught by using the maps supplied on the web.

  The students will be able to look at the areas involved and learn how much of the them are desert and make a fraction from their observations.

  This can be done state by state as well as by comparing the desert area to the whole of the Southwest or to the whole of the country or continent they happen to be studying.

  Then they can be taught to add and subtract these fractions, and find equivalent areas (fractions).

  Multiplying and dividing can also be taught along with fractions.

  The students can learn the process of multiplication of fractions along with learning their multiplication tables, and then go on to learn division using the same process.

  The students can estimate the distances between cities of the desert areas studied and Providence.

  They can then use measurement to find the real distance between the points.

  There are maps of national parks supplied on the web.

  Students can use this material again for measurement of trails, distances between points of interest, distances from the park to Providence: these can then be added and subtracted to reinforce skills being taught.

  Cooking recipes indigenous to the peoples of the desert areas can be cooked in the classroom to introduce/reinforce a different aspect of measurement.

  If time/space/availability of cooking resources are lacking in the classroom, parents could be asked to make certain recipes at home, and come into the class to discuss the process of cooking with the class.

  The Census Bureau can also be accessed to provide numbers of Native Americans living in the desert region and use this data to do all the same types of activities already mentioned.

Science