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iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert Ecosystem
[email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
What is it? What’s my rule?
I Wonder…? More than a WOW!
What do _______
Look like?
What do _______
Do?
Where do _______
Live?
Asking Questions, Language Experience or Describing language science games… bring the desert alive and engage thinking! Based on the game Guess Who and using the terms “broad and narrow. SWITCH-A-Roo too!
Brainstorm or Research Ideas PK-3
“Put together what goes together” and other classification, sorting lessons…. attributes and values for thinkers!
Start this in preschool, and teachers…. start by understanding attributes and values.
Attributes can be size, color, shape.
Values can be small, medium, large (size) red, blue, green (color) or round, square, triangular (shape)
Learn to focus.. by playing with the magnifying lens tool.
Practice observing by describing - adding words to what you see.
Draw the details… accurately.
Notice the scale and perspective… compare carefully!
Share and compare with peers!
Why is this black dot?
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert Ecosystem
[email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
Great Books!FictionAlejandro’s Gift (Albert)Desert Night Shift: Pack Rat Story (Storad)Cactus Hotel (Guiberson)What if Everybody Did That? (Javernick)Desert Voices (Baylor)Soft Child (Hayes)Way Out in the Desert (Ward)
Non-FictionDesert Giant (Bash)A Day and Night in the Desert (Arnold)Alejandro’s Gift (Albert)Desert Scrapbook (Wright-Frierson)Who Pooped in the Sonoran Desert? (Robson)Desert Baths (Pattison)Desert Food Webs (Fleisher)One Day in the Desert (George)Fang and Stinger (Storad)
Fun Desert Facts!Big Place…. 100,000 square miles in AZ/CA and Mexico!
Most biodiverse and hottest North American Desert with an ocean too, the Sea of Cortez.
60 species of mammals, more than 350 kinds of birds, 20 amphibians, around 100 reptiles and over 2000 native species of plants.
The roots of the Mesquite tree can bore down 30 meters into the soil to find moisture.Some plants die completely above ground, but survive underneath the soil as thickened roots, bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and nodules of a variety of designs, structures and sizes.Kangaroo rats, one of the smallest desert mammals, can survive their entire lives without drinking a drop of water. They get their water from dry seeds and the occasional leaf or insect.Roadrunners spend most of their lives on the ground and can run at speeds up to 40km/hr. Running is actually less strenuous and requires less energy than flying, allowing the roadrunner to conserve water and energy.Spadefoot toads estivate (a hibernation type state) for 8-9 months of the year. A horny projection on each hind foot acts as a digging tool to make a burrow underground. Then the toad secretes and covers itself with a slimy substance to keep it from drying out during its very long nap.
Local ResourcesOrganization: (hands-on activity resources)Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society:tucsoncactus.org (education) *** tucsoncactus.org/html/education.html
Field Trips:Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum desertmuseum.orgTucson Botanical Gardens tucsonbotanical.orgTohono Chul Park http://tohonochulpark.orgPima County Parks/Recreation/Pima Prickly Park webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=32567UA Arboretum and Herbarium arboretum.arizona.edu ag.arizona.edu/herbarium/node/1
Weblinks:Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society:tucsoncactus.org (education)Pinterest: Deserts https://www.pinterest.com/bel814la/sonoran-desert/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/cassie_osborne/desert-activities-for-kids/Desert Museum: https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/Grand Canyon: http://www.grandcanyontourist.com/news/a-kids-guide-to-the-arizona-sonoran-desert/
Our Sonoran Desert
Sea of
Cortez
iSTEM THINKING about your Engineering in the Desert…to SEE and WONDER!
Want to increase awareness of details…. try this. Collect books or pictures of the “prickly pear cacti” and, you need green cardstock, scissors and scotch tapes for every student or team.
B4 starting this activity, have the student sketch 3-5 different cacti they are familiar with in our desert. Put those aside.
Now, try building a prickly pear… by looking at real of photographic images of the cacti. Students need to pay attention to scale, balance, points of connection, angles when cutting out and typing together their “engineered prickly pear.”
After working for 15 minutes,,,,, collect observations, record things students needed to pay attention to in order to engineer a realistic prickly pear.
You will not be surprised at the details they see/observe and how they can make those engineered marvels work.
Try it.. it is tough and you’ll see more than you ever knew. Use pictures to help them see the details for new pads, blooms and fruits.
Counting the seedsof Barrel Fruits.
What is a fruit on a cactus? Why does cactus have fruit? How do fruit on different cacti look the same or different.
AND…. remember, kids love prickly pear lemonade, jelly and candy! Try it!
Collect the barrel cactus fruits…. they have no spines or glochids to hurt the students.
Talk about fruits as a part of the life cycle. Play a guessing game.. how many seeds in a peach? apple? orange?
Now, how many in a barrel cactus fruit. Pass out the fruit and scissors for dissecting the fruit. WOW…. amazing…. more than a thousand seed in every fruit. Extend your conversation to seed dispersal by the animals (mammals, birds, lizards) Talk about herbivore/
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert [email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
Explore in the “DIRT”…. SOILSonoran Desert Soil
Grades 2-3.. time to start working with constants and variables, experiments and planning your own hypothesis and testing it too!
Design a test to compare “one variable.” It is fun and this dirty play is worth the investment of time…. better than telling the kids… do this, then this, now this!
Ask me about the 3 types of soil, 3 cups with holes in the bottom, timers or better yet… have the students count themselves!
Do the MATH…. design your own garden.
Keep it simple… one size on grid paper.
Select 10 cactus that your set the price, the size at planting an the size when full grown.
Let the students build their own garden for butterflies, cactus or a tortoise.
What do you need? What is the budget?
Include: legend/key, scale, compass rose, grid, author.
Optional: signage for garden plants.
ASK ME MORE!
Sonoran Desert [email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
Photosynthesis and CAM Metabolism
Life Cycle
Adaptations for Survival Parts and Functions
6CO2 + 6H2O + Light energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2 Try this with marshmallows and toothpicks
Photosynthesis is vital to facilitate the process of respiration in both, humans and animals, as our oxygen requirements are fulfilled by the oxygen which is produced during this process.
CAM Metaboilism- In these CACTUS, the stomata stay shut during the daytime; an adaptation meant to reduce the loss of water. At night, when the stomata open, carbon dioxide enters the leaves and gets trapped inside. This carbon dioxide is stored as a four-carbon acid, and is eventually used during the process of photosynthesis on the next day. AMAZING! PROCESS - ADAPTATION!
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert [email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
What is it?Goal: Asking Questions to learn about “broad and narrow” thinking. More than a guessing game… it is about THINKING. Narrow question- “Is it a rattlesnake?” Broad question- “Is it a mammal?”
“People think of questioning as simple,” —“it’s a very sophisticated, high-level form of thinking.” Questioning can help expand and open up the way we think about a subject or a problem—but questions also can direct and focus our thinking.
Materials: Pictures cut from magazines/calendars mounted on 5x7 card of plants/animals from the Sonoran Desert (land or sea.)
Procedures: 1. Working in pairs, one student chooses a card. The 2nd student asks 3 to 5 “yes or no” answer questions then guess the identity. Or try another way!2. Working in pairs, one student chooses a card. He/she gives 3 to 5 descriptive clues one at a time to the partner. Partner tries to guess the identity after each clue. Can be played with 3-4 team members.3. Make a game board with flip up pictures. Use the same rules as the game Guess Who?
What’s My Rule?Goal: Sorting and Classification using the terms attributes and values. “Put together what goes together.” Increase clarity, understanding and THINKING!
“Teaching young children how to match, classify, and measure is an important part of developing early math skills because these skills help children identify and describe relationships between items.
Attributes can be size, color, shape, textureValues can be small, medium, large (size) red, blue, green (color) or round, square, triangular (shape) rough, smooth (texture)
Materials: A variety of shells. Labels with values - small, medium, large - light, dark - round, flat…
Procedures: Working independently or in pairs, student/s group like shells together Labels can be used with younger students. Older students can label their own groupings.
I Wonder…?Goal: Effective Brainstorming, leading to primary level curiosity and research of a favorite desert land or marine plant or animal. Introduction to note-taking and bibliography.
“You have to make research child-friendly.” She helps young students—in grades as low as PK—make effective use of print or online research. Start with curiosity and add on observation and organization.”
Materials: Non-fiction books appropriate to age level. Sometimes, picture heavy books (higher reading level) that K-3 students can use to gather information by observation. Sticky notes are great for note-taking.
Procedures: Working independently or in pairs, student/s choose/s a marine or land plant/animal to answer the questions Where do I live?, What do I look like? and What do I do? Student/s can choose a variety of ways to share the results of their research - pop-up book, hand made book, poster presentation to the class…
More than WOW!Goal: OBSERVATION… Describing and drawing marine or land desert plants/animals using colors, shapes, scale and all the senses.
“Students/learners need to develop keen observation skills to enable her to notice points of interest around her. The process of learning how to observe is not intuitive- develop those skills through guided practice - it pays off! Draw or record- your choice!”
Materials: Magnifying glasses/lens. Samples of marine realia (shell, dried sea star) or desert land realia. Drawing paper and drawing utensil (pencil, chalk, crayon).
Procedures: Working independently, each student with be given a magnifying glass and an object found in the ocean. Student will study the object using the magnifying glass, writing down a list of physical observations. Student can then draw the object (scientific/botanical illustration).
Fast Facts about our Desert Ocean
‣ 50% of the Sonoran Desert is ocean - the Gulf of California, aka the Sea of Cortez.
‣ 40%-60% of Earth’s oxygen is produced in the ocean by phytoplankton - microscopic plants.
‣ Sea of Cortez is 700 miles long, 100,000 square miles of surface area and 900 to over 9,000 feet deep.
‣ The continuation of the San Andreas fault runs down the middle of the gulf.
‣ The shape of the basin creates some of the largest tides in the world.
‣ Its nutrient rich water contain over 6,000 invertebrates, 1,200 vertebrates including 36 marine mammals.
‣ There are many threats, one is overfishing - 500,000 tons of marketable seafood taken every year, but another 1 to 3 million tons of by-catch (non-targeted species) is taken in the process.
‣ The most endangered porpoise (Vaquita) is endemic to the Northern Gulf.
Resources ‣ Desert Dolphins Dive Club -
‣ CEDO (Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans) - www.cedointercultural.org
‣ Warden Aquarium at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum - http://www.desertmuseum.org/aquarium/
‣ Marine Discovery at the Flandrau Planetarium on the U of A campus - http://flandrau.org/programs/discovery/marine
‣ Fin Foundation - http://thefinfoundation.org
‣ Biosphere 2 Ocean - http://b2science.org/ocean
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert Ocean Ecosystem
Annette Felix - [email protected]
Bibliography of Great Books
The Edge of the Sea of Cortez Betty Hupp & Marilyn Malone (NF) Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas Molly Bang (NF) Hello Ocean Pam Muñoz Ryan Adelina’s Whales Richard Sobol (NF) Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef Marianne Berkes Seahorses Sylvia M. James (NF) A House for Hermit Crab Eric Carle Mister Seahorse Eric Carle (BOTF) Ducky Eve Bunting (BOTF) Sharks Gail Gibbons (NF) Sea Turtles Gail Gibbons (NF) Whales Gail Gibbons (NF)
(NF) - Non-Fiction (BOTF) - Based on True Facts
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert Ecosystem
[email protected] [email protected]
What is it?Goal: Asking Questions to learn about “broad and narrow” thinking. More than a guessing game… it is about THINKING. Narrow question- “Is it a rattlesnake?” Broad question- “Is it a mammal?”
“People think of questioning as simple,” —“it’s a very sophisticated, high-level form of thinking.” Questioning can help expand and open up the way we think about a subject or a problem—but questions also can direct and focus our thinking.
Materials: Pictures cut from magazines/calendars mounted on 5x7 card of plants/animals from the Sonoran Desert (land or sea.)
Procedures: 1. Working in pairs, one student chooses a card. The 2nd student asks 3 to 5 “yes or no” answer questions then guess the identity. Or try another way!2. Working in pairs, one student chooses a card. He/she gives 3 to 5 descriptive clues one at a time to the partner. Partner tries to guess the identity after each clue. Can be played with 3-4 team members.3. Make a game board with flip up pictures. Use the same rules as the game Guess Who?
What’s My Rule?Goal: Sorting and Classification using the terms attributes and values. “Put together what goes together.” Increase clarity, understanding and THINKING!
“Teaching young children how to match, classify, and measure is an important part of developing early math skills because these skills help children identify and describe relationships between items.
Attributes can be size, color, shape, textureValues can be small, medium, large (size) red, blue, green (color) or round, square, triangular (shape) rough, smooth (texture)
Materials: A variety of shells. Labels with values - small, medium, large - light, dark - round, flat…
Procedures: Working independently or in pairs, student/s group like shells together Labels can be used with younger students. Older students can label their own groupings.
I Wonder…?Goal: Effective Brainstorming, leading to primary level curiosity and research of a favorite desert land or marine plant or animal. Introduction to note-taking and bibliography.
“You have to make research child-friendly.” She helps young students—in grades as low as PK—make effective use of print or online research. Start with curiosity and add on observation and organization.”
Materials: Non-fiction books appropriate to age level. Sometimes, picture heavy books (higher reading level) that K-3 students can use to gather information by observation. Sticky notes are great for note-taking.
Procedures: Working independently or in pairs, student/s choose/s a marine or land plant/animal to answer the questions Where do I live?, What do I look like? and What do I do? Student/s can choose a variety of ways to share the results of their research - pop-up book, hand made book, poster presentation to the class…
More than WOW!Goal: OBSERVATION… Describing and drawing marine or land desert plants/animals using colors, shapes, scale and all the senses.
“Students/learners need to develop keen observation skills to enable her to notice points of interest around her. The process of learning how to observe is not intuitive- develop those skills through guided practice - it pays off! Draw or record- your choice!”
Materials: Magnifying glasses/lens. Samples of marine realia (shell, dried sea star) or desert land realia. Drawing paper and drawing utensil (pencil, chalk, crayon).
Procedures: Working independently, each student with be given a magnifying glass and an object found in the ocean. Student will study the object using the magnifying glass, writing down a list of physical observations. Student can then draw the object (scientific/botanical illustration).
Relationships Between OrganismsWhen you see an owl in a hole in the giant saguaro….When you find a cactus wren nest in a cholla…When you see cochineal on a prickly pear….
Symbiosis, commensalism, mutualism, parasitism and predator/prey relationships.
Relationships Between OrganismsEverything on Earth doesn't exist in its own little bubble. Species interact every day. That interaction is a vital part of how organisms develop and change over time. When you study species, it is important to watch the way they interact with their surroundings. There are four basic types of relationships that living things have with one another. Here are definitions of a few of the most common words used by biologists to classify such inter-relationships.
• Symbiosis: This comes from a Greek word simply meaning 'living together' and can be used to describe any association between two organisms. The word symbiosis literally means 'living together,' but when we use the word symbiosis in biology, what we're really talking about is a close, long-term interaction between two different species. There are many different types of symbiotic relationships that occur in nature. In many cases, both species benefit from the interaction. This type of symbiosis is called mutualism. An example of mutualism is the relationship between bullhorn acacia trees and certain species of ants. Each bullhorn acacia tree is home to a colony of stinging ants. Examples- Yucca pollination ecology is an example of a tight symbiosis called a mutualism. (Symbiosis refers to a close association between two species in that at least one benefits from the association. Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship in which each species depends on the other for survival.)
• Mutualism: This can be used to describe an association in which both organisms apparently benefit. Examples of Mutualism in the desert biome—-An animal might eat plant fruit and disperse the seeds via scat... The animal benefitted from eating, and the plant benefitted from the seed dispersal..
• Commensalism: In this association one organism [the commensal] benefits, and the other [the host] is apparently unaffected. Examples of commensalism in the desert. A cactus wren builds its nest in a cactus to protect its young from predators such as raven. There is no harm to the cactus.
iSTEM THINKING about your Sonoran Desert [email protected] Caryl Jones 299-6813
• Parasitism In this association one organism [the parasite] benefits, and the other [the host] is adversely affected [weakened, sickened, damaged etc]. This description would also fit the relationship between a carnivore and its live prey and a herbivore and the plant it feeds on, especially if they are very specialized in the food they eat. We normally define parasites as orgamisms which cannot survive without their host and have special modifications to their body or their life cycle for this association. In many ways though, the difference between a lion eating a gazelle and a flea feeding on a dog, is a matter of relative size. Examples of parasitism in the desert. Fleas on a Kangaroo Rat. The fleas benefit by drinking the blood of the Kangaroo Rat. The K. Rat dose not benefit, if it looses too much blood it will Die.
• Predator-Prey relationship: Predator is an organism that eats another organism. The prey is the organism which the predator eats. Some examples of predator and prey are lion and zebra, bear and fish, and fox and rabbit. Predator prey examples. A rattle snake is hungry and needs foods so eats its prey the rat.Relationships Between Organisms. What is the Relationship here? EXPLORE, DISCOVER, RESEARCH, OBSERVE… BE CURIOUS!
