At Cogitania’s Saturday Botany workshop fourth graders learned about the desert biome.

First the students revealed what they already knew about deserts and then we watchedaBBC documentary about deserts. 

We discussed the adaptations desert plants have made to survive in the desert’s hot and dry climate and learned there are cool deserts like Antartica. We learned about how plants collect and store rainwater.

Finally, we cut cross-sections of a cactus stem to take a close-up view of the spines and inside of the cactus stem. The cactus stem serves as the plant's photosynthetic organ and is used for water storage. Our cactus stem was almost 100 percent water. Two cactus structures, the ribs and tubercles, help the cactus stem expand and contract as water availability changes.