Ask students to tell you what they already know about it and what they don't yet know but would like to learn. List this information on the blackboard. Discuss the sorts of plants and animals that are adapted to survive in deserts, and how they might function with their environment as a self-sustaining ecosystem. Point out on a map the continent of Antarctica. Ask students to test the definition of a desert on this continent.
Ice extends into the ocean around much of Antarctica.
Aristotle believed that there were two landmasses at Earth's North and South Poles. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth. Antarctica is a desert. Most of the ice that covers Antarctica has been there for thousands of years. Antarctica was first sighted in 1820 by explorer Fabian von Bollinghausen, who never set foot on the continent but observed it from his ship.