National Wildlife Federation
Branching Out – Exploring Dendrochronology
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...
Curated OER
Signs of Change: Tree Rings
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...
Curated OER
Time and Cycles - Dendrochronology
Students investigate the lives of trees by examining ring cycles. In this plant life activity, students identify the field of study known as dendrochronology and discover its history. Students investigate a simulated tree...
Curated OER
Reading Trees: Understanding Dendrochronology
Students 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.
Curated OER
"Logs of Straw: Dendrochronology"
Students act as dendrochonologists working to reconstruct a 50 year climatic history. They make a personal timeline.
Curated OER
Tree-ring Dating
Young scholars complete activity sheets and participate in discussions while they study dendrochronology. They determine a tree's age and recognize how the climate varied over time.
Curated OER
Tree-Ring Dating
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...
Curated OER
Trees: Are They Thriving or Surviving?
In this trees survival lesson plan, 8th graders discuss what trees need to grow, brainstorm things that could adversely affect tree growth, and compare characteristics of thriving trees vs. surviving trees. Students learn about the...
Curated OER
How Old Is This Tree?
Students work in pairs to determine the age of a tree using two different methods in this experiment. They collect data about how trees change over time.
Curated OER
Aging of Trees
Students examine tree rings to determine its age. In this tree ring lesson, students examine core tree samples, identify the tree rings, and then determine its age. Students complete a worksheet, deciding which of the two core...
Curated OER
Science: The Age of the Redwoods
Students discover how to estimate the age of redwood trees. They measure the trees' diameters by using string to calculate the circumferences. Students conclude by discussing the science of dendrochronolgy.
National Park Service
It Was a Very Good Year
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...
Curated OER
Global Change- Time and Cycles
Young scholars study trees and their growth. In this investigative lesson students work in groups to reconstruct a 50 year climatic history using a simulated tree ring.
Curated OER
What Does Plant Biology Teach Is About Climate?
Students examine what factors influence climate. In this investigative lesson students compare the factors that influence climate and how they effect tree growth.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Time and Cycles: Dendrochronology
Students explore the direct impact of climate on annual tree growth patterns by using pre-marked paper strips to simulate tree-ring core samples.
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Tree Rings Simulation Dendrochronology
Tree rings help scientists learn about past climates by decoding tree ring patterns. Use this interactive simulation to learn how tree ring patterns tell us about climate conditions in the past.
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Dendrochronology Trees: Recorders of Climate Change
Students discover how tree age can be determined by studying the rings, and how ring thickness can be used to deduce times of optimal growing conditions. Then they investigate simulated tree rings applying the scientific method to...
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Introduction to Climate
A detailed overview of the Earth's climate, with explanations about the difference between weather and climate, dendrochronology, palynology, and how Earth's climate has changed over time. All information is reinforced through pictures,...
PBS
Nova: Build a Tree Ring Timeline
This activity is an introduction to the branch of science called dendrochronology. Discover what this science tells us about the past and see if you can create a tree ring timeline by matching up band patterns from several different trees.
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Ucar: Tree Rings and Climate Timeline Simulation
In this online interactive activity, you will align tree ring cores to build a long chronology of climate history.
University of Maryland
Maryland Sea Grant: Dendroclimatology
This is a set of lessons where students investigate tree rings and what scientists can learn from them. They measure tree rings and correlate the data to precipitation patterns in order to make predictions about the climate. For an...
NOAA
Noaa: Be a Tree Ring Detective [Pdf]
Discover the reason why trees have rings. Then use your skills of inquiry to decide which tree samples are the oldest, based on their rings.
University of Colorado
University of Colorado: Signs of Change: Studying Tree Rings
Students gather information from real tree core samples and compare them with local climate history.
University of California
Ucsb: Archserve: Exercise 1 2: Chronological Methods
A resource highlighting the process of dating methods in archaeology. Look at Relative Dating and Absolute Dating systems.