For The Classroom

A Great Basin Full of Activities

  • To help students understand the effect of salt on plants, obtain three identically sized plant cuttings rooted in water. Place one plant in a 10 g/l salt solution, another in a 50 g/L salt solution, and a third in plain water. Have students record the effects on the plants' roots and leaves.
  • Residents of Las Vegas use twice as much water per capita as those of Tucson, Arizona, also located in a desert environment. Have students investigate why this is so and the kinds of measures Las Vegas could take to conserve water. (They could landscape with native desert vegetation, which requires less water; install showerheads and toilet tanks that use less water; establish restrictions on what times of the day and year people can wash their automobiles; and have restaurants offer water only upon request.)
  • Have students design a plant or animal that is adapted to living in an arid environment. Include at least four characteristics that help this species survive.
  • Have students research the other three deserts that occur in North America (Sonora, Mojave, Chihuahua) and identify their different characteristics. Compare and contrast with the Great Basin desert.
  • Obtain two small cacti and two leafy plants (but please don't dig up native or wild ones). Over the course of two months, have students water only one of the cacti and one of the leafy plants, and record their observations of all four plants. After two months, the children can dissect both of the cacti and observe the level of water accumulated in the fleshy parts of the plants. (Students must wear heavy, protective gloves for this activity.)
  • To point out the Great Basin's impact on the national economy, have students research some of the resources derived from the area, including gold, potash, magnesium, pumice, salt, silver, water, beef, mutton, brine shrimp, pine seeds (sold as "pine nuts"), recreation, and scientific data about past environments and human cultures. As an extension, have students research the resources found in other deserts of the world (for example, oil from the Syrian Desert in Saudi Arabia)
  • To explore the effects of temperature on water evaporation, you will need three same-size jars, salt, water, a graduated cylinder, and a 200-watt lamp on a stand. Label the three jars A, B, and C. Prepare a salt solution by dissolving 20 g of salt in 60 ml of warm water, equally dividing the solution among the three jars. Mark the water level on each jar. Set jar A under the lighted lamp, jar B in an undisturbed place and jar C in a cool place. Make sure none of the jars is in a drafty place. For the next three days, have students record the water level at the end of each day. Students will note that evaporation occurs fastest in warm air temperatures, and slowest in cool temperatures.
  • Research major climatic changes in the Great Basin over the last 5000 years. Use the information to write a history of a bristlecone pine, and to prepare a graphic depicting the climatic changes as read through the tree's rings.
  • The prehistoric cultures of the Great Basin adapted to its unpredictable and fluctuating resources. Research the Fremont and Desert Archaic cultures, and the modern Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone peoples, noting the adaptations they made.
  • Forecast the consequences of climatic changes in the Great Basin, including global warming or cooling. What would the effects be on animals? On plants? On human activities and settlements?
  • On a map showing contour lines, have students prepare acetate overlays of the area modern lakes would cover if they were to rise to various amounts. Refer to a Utah map for the Great Salt Lake/Lake Bonneville and to a Nevada map for the Carson Sink/Lake Lahontan, and research prehistoric lake levels.
  • As a class activity, have students brainstorm ways to maintain the health of Great Basin ecosystems while still allowing the public to use the land in varied ways.

    Back to The Big Empty Homepage