Learn what makes a desert biome, where deserts are and how life survives there, by hunting deserts on a map and watching hot days turn to cold nights.
Years 3–6 geography · 1
Years 3–6 geography · 1
Years 3–6 geography · 1
Years 3–6 geography · 1
Years 3–6 geography · 1
Years 3–6 geography · 1
What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:
Desert Explorers is an interactive geography game that teaches children aged 7–11 about the desert biome: what a desert is, where deserts are found, what their climate is like and how plants, animals and people live there.
Guided by Fez the fennec fox, players fill rain gauges to discover that a desert is any place with less than 250 mm of rain or snow a year, so icy Antarctica counts too. They find the Sahara, Atacama, Gobi and five more on a world map, and watch warm, wet air rise at the Equator while dry air sinks near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
Later, they slide the sun across the Sahara sky to see the temperature fall at night, design a cactus that saves water, explore a camel's adaptations and build a cool mud-brick house by an oasis. A 10-question challenge checks everything at the end.
A desert is any place that gets less than 250 mm of rain or snow in a year. Deserts can be scorching like the Sahara or freezing like Antarctica, and only about a fifth of all desert land is covered in sand.
Desert skies are usually clear, so the sun heats the ground strongly in the day. At night there are no clouds to act like a blanket, so the heat escapes into space and the temperature can drop by more than 30 °C.
Camels store fat, not water, in their humps and use it for energy when food is scarce. Long eyelashes and closable nostrils keep out sand, wide padded feet stop them sinking, and a thirsty camel can drink about 100 litres in ten minutes.
The game is designed for children aged 7 to 11 and is pitched mainly at Year 4, where deserts and biomes are usually taught in KS2 Geography. Every instruction is shown as a short caption and read aloud, so children can play on their own.
It has six chapters covering what a desert is, where deserts are, desert climate, plants, animals and people, plus a 10-question final challenge. Playing everything takes about 45 minutes, and children can pick any chapter from the camp map.
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