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Lesson Plan
US Environmental Protection Agency

Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate

For Teachers 5th - 10th Standards
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

What Can Tree Rings Tell Us About Climate?

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Tree rings are slightly thicker on the south side of the tree because it receives more sunlight. Part two in a series of five lessons helps learners analyze tree rings to determine the environmental conditions that caused size...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Signs of Change: Tree Rings

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students identify and experiment with dendrochronology (the study of tree rings to answer ecological questions about the recent past) and come up with conclusions as to what possible climatic conditions might affect tree growth in their...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Tree-Ring Activity

For Students 7th - 9th
In this tree ring worksheet, learners analyze tree ring samples to determine the age of the tree. They compare them to archived samples and answer questions about the age of the tree and its growth years and abnormal growth years.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tree Rings

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore tree rings. In this plant biology lesson, 4th graders construct a KWL chart on tree rings and examine real tree rings. Students identify the changes that happened during the tree's life and its actual age. Students...
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Lesson Plan
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Purdue University

Tree Talk

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
Examining tree rings shows more than just age. The third installment of a five-part Family Nature Program unit has learners examine all parts of trees including tree rings to tell stories about the life of the tree. They then use their...
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Lesson Plan
Polar Trec

Rings of Life

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Individuals analyze tree rings to determine the health of an ecosystem. They then look at otoliths of fish, hard calcium carbonate structures located behind the brain, in the same manner. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Death and Recovery

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, devastating plant and animal life for miles around. Two activities are included in this lesson plan. In one, learners evaluate tree rings to determine the age of a tree and the year of a volcano....
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Branching Out – Exploring Dendrochronology

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Tree rings from North America give a continuous history of El Nino intensity over the last 1,100 years. Scholars learn how scientists use tree rings to create timelines demonstrating variations in weather patterns. The cumulative...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tree Cookies

For Teachers 4th - 8th
You will find a viewer-friendly PowerPoint on the growth rings and other features found in a cross-section of a tree trunk, affectionately known as a "tree cookie." A few worksheets are provided for practice counting tree rings and a...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

What is DBH?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
When measuring the circumference of a tree, does it matter how high you place the measuring tape? Most scholars have never considered this question, but scientists know that measurement techniques must be standardized. The 13th...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dating a Volcanic Eruption

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students discover the various ways in which tree rings can give information. After a brief disucssion of concentric tree rings, they use cross section cut outs of tree rings to identify the time and type of various naturally occuring...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Tree Rings

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In this early science tree rings instructional activity, students examine 3 sets of tree rings and reveal which one is the oldest based on the number of rings.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lord of the Rings - A Study of Tree Rings

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students examine trees and discuss how the environment effected the tree. They also predict what the area look like in fifty years.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Aging of Trees

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students examine tree rings to determine its age.  In this tree ring lesson plan, students examine core tree samples, identify the tree rings, and then determine its age. Students complete a worksheet, deciding which of the two core...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reading Trees: Understanding Dendrochronology

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Pupils examine tree-ring dating and discuss the lack of water the settlers in Jamestown faced. They create paper tree rings, simulate rain patterns, and describe the history of construction paper tree sequences.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life Cycle of Trees

For Teachers 2nd - 8th Standards
Turn your students into young tree-tectives with this fun science investigation into the life of trees. To begin, a class volunteer gets dressed up in a tree costume as the different parts of trees are introduced. Then, the class learns...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tree Cookies

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students identify heartwood, sapwood, and a tree's annual rings, infer from a tree's rings what damage or stress might have occurred in its life, and make a time-line of human history that coincides with a tree's rings.
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Activity
It's About Time

Paleoclimates

For Teachers 7th - 12th
How do scientists know what the Earth was like in the past? This second installment of a six-part series focuses on paleoclimates and provides an overview of how geologists determine information about past climates using fossil pollen,...
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Activity
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National Park Service

It Was a Very Good Year

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park includes whitebark pines that are over 1,200 years old, meaning they have been there since before medieval times. The second lesson of five details how to read tree rings for climate change and...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Historical Climate Cycles

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Ice core samples give scientists access to climates of old—those from more than 800,000 years ago. Through an analysis of various temperature graphs from ice cores, tree rings, and weather stations, scholars compare historical climates...
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Lesson Plan
Minnesota Department of Natural Resoures

Tree Life

For Teachers 2nd Standards
The life of a tree is the focus of a packet consisting of several activities all covering a different subject. Second graders measure shadows, make pinecone critters, write poems, count rings, complete a word search, play tree tag, and...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Tree-Ring Dating

For Students 5th - 8th
In this tree-ring dating worksheet, students use activity sheets to determine a tree's age and to observe changes in climate from the tree-rings. Students investigate how archaeologists use tree rings to date evidence and they answer 5...
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PPT
Curated OER

Tree Cookies!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
"Tree Cookies!" is a delicious little presentation designed to introduce upper elementary or middle school botanists to the anatomy of a tree trunk. The cambium, phloem, xylem, and other vital structures are identified and defined. Two...

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