This document provides examples of higher-order thinking questions to ask students about various photographs related to desert landscapes. The questions target different cognitive levels including remember, understand, analyze, evaluate, and create. They aim to get students to describe, make inferences, analyze environmental impacts, compare and contrast, prioritize, and design related to the content of the photographs. Examples include questions about abandoned structures in the desert, animal adaptations, and recreational and scientific activities.

1. ACTIVATING HIGHER
ORDER THINKING SKILLS
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
HEATHER BRETT

2. • Describe this photograph using five
descriptive words and/or phrases.
(Remember)
• Determine the environmental factors
that led to this dry and barren
landscape. (Analyze)
• Predict what would happen if the
distant clouds brought rain to this
landscape. (Analyze)

3. • Write a narrative about where this
road may lead. (Remember)
• What do you think about the
environmental impact of desert
highway construction? (Evaluate)
• Can you provide another example
where human construction affects
the environment? (Understand)

4. • What can you infer about this
abandoned gas station?
(Understanding)
• Design a marketing ad to bring
business back to this once popular
desert service station. (Create)
• Label the nouns in this photograph. If
you do not know its name, tell what
the object does. (Remember)

5. • In your own words, define erosion.
(Remember)
• Retell what components of erosion
led to the rounding of these desert
boulders. (Understand)
• How does this desert tree
compare/contrast with trees in our
community? (Understand)

6. • Can you explain what must have
happened to this plane? (Analyze)
• List four possible reasons why this
plane has been left in the desert.
(Remember)
• If you had access to all available
resources, how would you deal with
removing this plane from the desert?
(Evaluate)

7. • Scientists predict that wind farms
may bring more rain to the desert.
How can this improve desert
conditions? (Apply)
• What unintended consequences
could wind farms create?
(Remember)
• How can other renewable energy
sources save the environment?
(Understand)

8. • This desert hare camouflages with its
surroundings. Can you name other
animals that have this adaptation too?
(Remember)
• Analyze the environmental challenges
this hare faces living in the desert?
(Analyze)
• Illustrate a food chain that includes the
desert. Be sure the food chain starts
with a producer. (Apply)

9. • How do you think the camel got
ahold of the water bottle?
(Remember)
• Write a caption for this photo
explaining what is happening.
(Understand)
• Imagine that you were asked to
design a hydration product for
camels. Create the product. Name it
and create a marketing campaign.
(Create)

10. • Describe what is happening in the
photograph. (Remember)
• Predict what you think could happen
next. (Understand)
• Compose a song that the desert
meerkats could sing about desert life.
(Create)

11. • What materials were used to
construct this desert shelter?
(Remember)
• Compare this dwelling to those built
by the Ancient Egyptians. (Analyze)
• What design features would you
change if you had to live here?
Explain. (Apply)

12. • List all the items that you see in this
desert survival kit. What are they used
for? (Remember)
• Write a descriptive paragraph about
what this person will see and encounter
on his hike through the desert.
(Remember)
• Prioritize what you believe to be the
top five most important supplies for
desert survival. Justify each supply with
a one-to-two sentence explanation.
(Evaluate)

13. • How is this activity similar to skiing?
Surfing? How is it different? Explain.
(Understand)
• Make a PowerPoint scrapbook about
the various recreational activities in
the desert. (Apply)
• Assess the environmental impact of
desert recreational activities. Prepare
a case to present your opinion.
(Evaluate)

14. • What do astronauts do? (Remember)
• How is training in the desert related
to space travel? (Analyze)
• What inference can be made as to
why these astronauts are training in
the desert? (Understand)

15. • How do paleontologists discover fossils and what do they
learn from it’s fossil record? According to Montelongo,
Berber-Jimenez, Hernandez, and Hosking (2006), when
students understand text structure like sequencing, they are
able to bridge their mental interpretation of the content with
the author’s message. (Analysis)-Procedural Text
• A paleontologist found this fossilization of a once living sea
creature in the desert! What conclusion can be drawn about
what this landscape was like thousands of years ago? When
readers utilize text structures, they can correlate it to their
understandings to create meaning (Meyer & Ray, 2011)
(Analysis)- Informative Text
• Describe a time that you found or discovered something
exciting. Nathanson (2006) emphasizes the importance of
making the reading and writing connection visible for
students to support their understandings. (Remembering)-
Narrative Text

16. REFERENCES
Meyer, B. J. F., & Ray, M. N. (2011). Structure strategy interventions: Increasing reading comprehension of expository text. International
Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 4(1), 127-152. Retrieved from
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/ace.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/912207094?accountid=31683
Montelongo, J., Berber-Jiménez, L., Hernández, A.,C., & Hosking, D. (2006). Teaching expository text structures. The Science Teacher, 73(2),
28-31. Retrieved from
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/ace.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/214612894?accountid=31683
Nathanson, S. (2006). Harnessing the Power of Story: Using Narrative Reading and Writing across Content Areas. Reading Horizons, 47(1),
1–26. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=eric&AN=EJ761391&site=eds-
live&scope=site&authtype=sso&custid=ns083389