Introduction| Task| Process| Evaluation| Conclusion| Credits| Teacher Page

Introduction

Many different animals and plants make the Arizona Sonoran Desert their home. Your task is to learn about these desert plants and animals through the use of this web site, books, videos and science experiments.

Saguaro Hotel is modeled after Cactus Hotel. Saguaro cacti grow only in the Arizona Sonoran desert. We hope this web quest helps you understand life in the desert. Think about a visit to a hotel as you begin this web quest. The Saguaro Hotel takes a look at life around this cactus. It will help you learn about the animals that depend on the Saguaro cactus as their home.

Task

Your task is to learn about desert animals and the desert habitat of the AZ Sonoran Desert. Find out how animals live in the desert and what adaptation means.  Once you have a basic understanding of the animals and plants that live in the desert, you will design or create your own desert animal.  You will want to use your knowledge about real desert animals and the adaptations they have made in designing your new make-believe animal.

Special adaptations allow plants and animals to live in AZ Sonoran Desert. The Saguaro Hotel is a special part of this habitat. Are you ready to find out about the special animals that live around the saguaro cactus?

You will start with some basic questions to answer.

Process

1.    You will select a desert animal to research. It is important that you learn about how plants and animals survive in the desert. Have you ever wondered how the animals and plants adapt to life in the desert?

2.    Use the web sites and resources on this web site to help you learn about desert animals and one special plant that lives only in the Arizona Sonoran desert.

3.    You will need to write down what you learn and locate information on the study guide document. Learn about the adaptations the animals make to live in the desert. Here are some questions to think about…

$ What is the name of the animal?

$ What type of animal is it?

$ Is it a bird, reptile, mammal, or an amphibian?

$ What is the animal’s covering?

$ Where does the animal live?

$ What is its home or habitat?

$ What does it eat?

$ What does the animal look like?

$ When is the animal awake?

$ What does the animal need to look out for in the desert?

$ How does it adapt to life in the desert?

You will use your research to create a AZ Desert Animal Card and design a new desert animal card in Kid Pix and PowerPoint.

The Gallery of AZ Sonoran Desert Photographsis for student and educator use.

Evaluation:

Final Product:
Once you have answered your questions about life in the desert, you will make your own desert animal model. You must decide what adaptations to give your animal. Think about how the animal will live and sleep. Will it be active during the day or night time? What covers the animal that you are designing? What will it eat and what will it need to eat that food (teeth, claws, tongue)? What must it watch out for in the desert? How will it protect itself?

Your final product will be evaluated based on the rubric below.

Conclusion

You learned about life in the desert for plants and animals. Look for ways that the plants and animals in your community adapt.

Credits & References

Templates used to create this WebQuest are available from The WebQuest Pageand the Design Patternspage.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this Web Quest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this Web Quest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Useful web sites:
Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix, AZ
AZ Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ
DesertUSA.com

Introduction| Task| Process| Evaluation| Conclusion| Credits| Teacher Page

Elisa Magee,  Updated 8/31/18

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page