Draw and cut out a set of paper eyes to attach on straws for making characters.

Paper Eyes

Start your exploration of the desert biome and learn about the challenging conditions that make it an extreme and inhospitable environment for most plants and animals. Create a model of the sidewinder snake, a reptile that has evolved to survive in this hostile climate.

### Lesson Structure

When students go through this lesson in each section, the objectives they will learn are:

* **Imagine** – Learn how arid deserts can be in hot or cold regions of the world.
* **Build** – Design a sidewinder desert viper to make its home in a dry desert.

Teacher Notes

Overview and Objectives

Materials

#### Teachers: Preparing Your Students (5 min)


    When students begin the lesson, they start in [Overview and
    Objectives](#overview-and-objectives) , then transition to the
    [Preparation](#preparation) section. Presented in their view is a
    vocabulary list of terms and infographics illustrating concepts
    across STEAM domains throughout this entire lesson.

* Read through the vocabulary list. (5 minutes)  * Review the Sustainable Development Goals. (5 minutes)

This is the list of vocabulary terms used throughout the lesson. They will be in **bold** and listed throughout the sections. Students can revisit the vocabulary definitions with media and questions in the lesson.

Preparation

#### Desert Biomes
    *   Desert biomes receive less than 25 cm (10 in) of
    precipitation.

    *   Deserts can be in hot regions or cold ones, like Antarctica.

    *   Animals and plants in the desert biome have special
    adaptations to conserve water.

    *   There are five main types of desert: subtropical, interior,
    arctic, coastal, and rain shadow.

    *   Weather patterns cause subtropical deserts like the vast and
    dry Sahara.

    *   Air masses circulate warm, moist air near the equator, while
    the drier air masses are pushed north and south away from the
    equator.

    *   Interior or inland deserts, like the Gobi Desert in Mongolia,
    are too far from a large body of water to receive rain.

    *   Death Valley, in California, is a rain shadow desert. These
    occur when high mountains are too tall for rain clouds to cross
    over.

    *   The Atacama desert in Chile is a coastal desert with the least
    precipitation.

What makes a region a desert is that it receives less than 25 cm of precipitation yearly. Deserts may be hot or cold.

Imagine

Create the body

Build a head

Make fangs

Attach head

National Curriculum

Curriculum for Excellence

Build

References and Extra Resources

STEAM Classroom

UK - England

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

UK - Scotland

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

SDGs

Goal 15

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.

KS2-1

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment.

KS2-2

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

KS2-3

Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

I can identify and classify examples of living things, past and present, to help me appreciate their diversity. I can relate physical and behavioural characteristics to their survival or extinction.

SCN 2-01a

Through carrying out practical activities and investigations, I can show how plants have benefited society.

SCN 2-02b

By comparing my local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, I can investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things.

SOC 2-12a

Physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle.

🇬🇧 Intro: Desert Biome

Overview and Objectives

Lesson Structure