TreeCurr

toc **Order and Content Incomplete** =**3rd Grade Tree Curriculum**=

**Content Goals:**

 * Understand the difference between observation and inference.
 * Be able to make observations and inferences
 * Be able to make both quantitative (measurements) and qualitative (using senses) observations
 * Understand how trees are alike and how they differ through direct observation and examination of tree parts (leaves, bark, trunk, fruit, seeds)
 * Understand the annual cycle of trees.

**Process Goals:**

 * Use and care of scientific equipment
 * Appropriate use of scientific vocabulary
 * Development of skills for collecting and organizing data
 * Appreciation for organized journal entries
 * Development of observation skills, including more detail into drawings
 * Development of long term observation and recording skills
 * Improvement of observation skills, including ability to observe generalities as well as abnormalities
 * Use of a tree or leaf guide
 * Development of critical thinking skills, analytical skills
 * Understanding of how form informs function
 * Comparing and contrasting
 * Interpreting data

Hopefully, children will suggest that we make some observations about trees. At which point, we’ll show them a hi-resolution photo of a tree and, using the zoom at three different levels, we’ll model how one might make tree observations and how several observations together inform an inference. Go out on campus and locate 5 different trees find 5 different leaves. //Through some process, to be determined, children will be put in groups of 3 to study a particular tree.//
 * What do you know about trees?
 * Are trees alive? Are they living? How do you know?
 * Are all trees alike?
 * In what ways do you think they are different?
 * What questions do you have about trees?
 * How are trees named? (Popular name vs. scientific name)
 * Why scientific names?
 * How can we find out more about trees?

**Sharing Information:**

 * As groups present their trees and their observations of their trees using the Smartboard, we will be able to explore the following questions:
 * Are all tree trunks the same?
 * Are the barks of all trees the same? If yes, how. If not, how are they different?
 * Bark rubbing
 * Are all the leaves the same?
 * Leaf rubbing
 * Are all the leaves on one tree the same?
 * How can trees be identified? (using a tree guide)
 * Is there any evidence to suggest that animals have used your tree?

**Things to find out about your tree:**

 * Scientific name
 * Circumference
 * Photos of leaves, fruit, bark, etc.
 * Drawings, rubbings, photos
 * Can you collect any of its parts?
 * Conduct a tree interview: Does your tree have an interesting history? Was it planted for a special reason? Did it survive a traumatic event? Is it in its usual habitat?
 * Where is your tree usually found (in what part of the world)?
 * What conditions does your tree require to survive?
 * Does your tree have any natural predators?
 * Does your tree share itself with other animals?

Make a map of how to find your tree starting from your classroom? Collect samples of things that fall from your tree, mark the date on which it was collected. Perhaps put them in baggies with the date and tree name.

**Lesson: Taxonomy/Classification**

 * How are trees named?
 * Why scientific names?
 * How are living things classified?
 * If two trees share a common part of their name, what do you think this might mean?

**Making Predictions:**

 * When will the leaves change color?
 * Will all the leaves change color at the same time?
 * Will temperature or rainfall effect the color change?
 * Should we keep data on the local weather conditions using the Weather Web site for ecfs?
 * Will all trees of the same kind change at the same time?
 * When will all the leaves fall?
 * When will the new leaves emerge?
 * What creatures do you think might inhabit your tree?

**Lesson: Cycles**

 * What is a cycle?
 * What cycles do you know about? (water cycle, human life cycle, butterfly life cycle)
 * Do you think trees go through a cycle? If so, what do you think they are?
 * What names can we use for each of these cycles?
 * What do you think happens at each of these cycles? Can you make predictions?
 * Do all trees follow the same timetable?
 * There may be other stages that we haven’t anticipated. If you watch your tree carefully, you’ll be able to alert others that something different may be going on with their trees, too.

**Lesson: How Tall is Your Tree (Indirect measurement)**

 * Measuring very tall objects will be the focus of a lesson in the classroom. How can **we** do this in school? The idea of indirect measurement will be explored.
 * Students will take photo of their tree when the leaves are all gone and then work with Charlie to determine the height of their tree using indirect measurement.

**Lesson: Basic Needs**

 * Once it’s been established that trees are alive, we’ll explore the basic needs of living things.

**Lesson: Capillary Action**

 * How do different parts of the tree receive water and nutrients?

**Lesson: Density**

 * Discuss how we can compare different samples of woods leading to a discussion of density.
 * Find the densities of an assortment of wood samples.

**Lesson: Hardness**

 * Are all trees equally hard? How could we define hardness?
 * Can we access tools that will let us compare hardness? (Lydia?)
 * Do an investigation to compare hardness of the wood from various trees.
 * What questions do we still have about hardness?

**Lesson: Flammability**

 * Is the wood from all trees equally flammable?
 * Do an investigation to compare flammability.
 * What questions do we still have about flammability?

**Lesson: Are all leaves the same? Are all trunks the same? Are all barks the same?**

 * Leaf, trunk and bark observations
 * Do they have an odor?
 * Do they have the same texture?
 * Is their structure the same?
 * How big is the leaf and how does it compare to your hand?
 * What questions do we still have about leaves, trunks and barks?
 * Possible activity: find the surface area of your tree’s leaf

**Lesson: A closer look at twigs**

 * Are all twigs the same?
 * A closer look at leaf scars from different trees

**Lesson: Looking at deciduous and non-deciduous trees, coniferous**

 * What’s the difference?

Seed plants are divided into two categories based on their method of seed production: Angiosperms and Gymnosperms


 * Angiosperms: flowering plants that bear their seeds inside closed seed cases. They usually have broadleaves as opposed to needlelike or scalelike leaves.
 * Gymnosperms: no flowers, seeds generally produced in open cones (evergreens, conifers, softwoods with needlelike leaves, includes yews, hemlocks, spruces, firs, cypresses, sequoias and redwoods.)

**Lesson: Anatomy of a tree, leaf, cross section of a trunk**
**Understanding how trees grow and age**
 * Looking at cross-sections of trees. What do they tell us?
 * Rate of growth
 * What effect do the seasons have on trees?

Explore the animal life present in the tree environment

**Lesson: Photosynthesis**

 * The process in simple terms
 * Why are leaves green?
 * What happens when they change color?
 * Is light needed for leaves to stay green?
 * Explore leaf structures under the microscope, specifically stomates, openings through which gases (CO2 and O2 and water vapor) pass in and out of the leaves.
 * Conduct an experiment to investigate respiration

Children will select a tree to study/research in groups of 3. They will:
 * Make a sketch of their tree.
 * Find its scientific name
 * Take photos of the tree at various stages
 * Make observations about the tree, including both normal things about it as well as special things about it.
 * Make predictions about the trees
 * Do experiments on the wood that comes from these trees
 * Draw conclusions about how the wood from the tree may have been used by the Native Americans or even today!
 * Rubbings of the bark of the tree
 * Collect leaves, twigs, nuts, fruit, etc from the tree and keep them in a plastic storage bag in their binders.
 * Students will present their findings at various points during the study, utilizing the SmartBoard or KeyNote to share their photos or the results of their experiments.

**Art Activities:**

 * **Sketching the tree from different perspectives:**
 * Will Corinne and Emily assist with this?
 * Trunk sketch
 * Bark sketch
 * Leaf Sketch

**Rubbings:**

 * Bark
 * Leaf


 * Writing poems using the observations we made
 * Stories about trees
 * Movies: “The Man Who Planted Trees”

**Photos of their trees:**

 * 1) Mid September: Mature foliage
 * 2) Early-Mid October: Leaf color change
 * 3) Late November: Exfoliation
 * 4) Late April: Flowering and Fruiting (maybe fruiting)
 * 5) Early May: New foliage
 * 6) Bark close-up
 * 7) Leaf close-up
 * 8) Twig close-up
 * 9) Fruit close-up
 * 10) Seed close-up


 * Photosynthesis
 * Basic needs
 * Plant niche in the greater scheme of things
 * Parts of a tree

What are the characteristics of a tree, in general?
 * 1) To observe and record the annual cycle of a tree (à la germination photo exercise)
 * 2) What observations of your tree were you able to make that go with each season?


 * 1) Tell the story of the annual cycle of a tree using photos and words.
 * 2) After conducting a variety of investigations and learning about your tree, explain why your tree is similar to another tree, with the same partial scientific name, by researching the other tree.
 * 3) After doing a series of experiments, determine which trees are best suited for which functions e.g. best wood for canoes (Form and function)


 * KeyNote Presentation
 * Publish a book
 * Poster Presentation
 * Poem with illustrations