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
Tree Cookies
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...
Curated OER
Tree Friends
Students identify their special tree using all senses other than sight. They identify six different internal parts within a cross section of tree trunk
(bark, phloem, xylem, cambium, heartwood, and roots). Students compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Forestry and Forestry Products
High school and college learners identify forestry career opportunities. They identify the parts of a tree cross-section and trees based on their leaves and characteristics. Pupils calculate board feet and explain safe methods of...
Chicago Botanic Garden
What Can Tree Rings Tell Us About Climate?
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...
Curated OER
Tree Friends
Young scholars are introduced to tree structure and use. They identify their special tree using all senses except sight. Students identify six different internal parts within a cross section of tree trunk (bark, phloem, xylem, cambium,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
How Old Is That Tree?
Fifth graders study environmental changes by examining the annual rings of a cross-section of a tree trunk. They access websites to complete a worksheet on the parts of a tree. They count the annual rings on a tree slice while observing...
National Wildlife Federation
What is DBH?
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 lesson in...
Curated OER
Tree Identification
Students list four ways to identify trees. In this tree identification instructional activity, students use tree identification techniques such as leafs, bark, wood grain, soil type, and climate to create tables and graphs.
Curated OER
Dating a Volcanic Eruption
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...
Curated OER
Tree Cycles
Fourth graders investigate the life cycle of a tree by researching the Internet. For this plant life lesson, 4th graders observe The Life of a Tree website and discuss the life of a tree from sprout to death. Students create a cross...
Curated OER
Tree Rings
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...
Curated OER
Tree Birthdays
Students investigate the growth of trees. In this tree growth lesson, students discover that trees make a ring each year they live. Students use new voabulary such as bark, phloem, and cambuim to talk about tree parts. Students create a...
Curated OER
What Do Trees Do for Dinner?
Students investigate how trees produce their own food. They examine chlorophyll cells with a microscope, analyze a cross section of a log, determine how old the tree was, simulate the distance of the roots, and create a play.
Curated OER
Tree Cookies
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.
Curated OER
Trees: The Inside Story
Students explore trees. In this math lesson plan, students identify the basic parts of trees. Students create a model of a tree and label the parts.
Curated OER
Tree Growth
Students fill in a diagram. In this tree growth instructional activity, students view a model of a tree, learn how trees grow and explore the layers of a tree. Students complete a diagram where they label the layers of a tree.
Curated OER
Lesson Five: Identifying Christmas Trees
Stuudents distinguish between pines, spruces and firs they may see in their homes, by recognizing key characteristics such as shape, arrangement of needles and colouring. They recognize these same characteristics in trees growing outside.
Curated OER
Trees: Recorders of Climate Change
Middle schoolers study cross sections of trees or tree "cookies" to discover how the rings on tree sections give clues to the climate during the time the ring was produced. They study simulated cross sections of trees to determine the...
Curated OER
Transportation System of a Tree
Students examine the transportation system of a tree and the speed with which nutrients and water move. Cross sections of the samples used are examined in class for experimental results.
Curated OER
Trees for Tomorrow
Learners examine how to plan for prudent use of trees so that we never run out of this natural resource. They determine what the oldest wooden object in their home is and draw picture of it. They observe a cross section of a tree and...
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
Recycled Tree
Students examine a sculpture by the artist Jin Soo Kim, and discuss the concept of recycling paper. They create a tree sculpture using recycled paper and reusable paper products.
Curated OER
Tree Cookie Combat
Fourth graders discover what trees need to live and grow in the environment. They realize that trees sometimes interact or compete with other organisms as well as each other. They identify the physical characteristics of Utah's...