Big Ideas
Trees are helpful to our environment and quality of life in many ways, and we should care for and protect them.
Trees provide us with oxygen.
Trees improve air quality.
Trees help to maintain the climate.
Trees help preserve water
Trees help preserve soil.
Trees support wildlife.
Summary
When students are asked, “What benefits, or good things, do we get from trees?,” most students will immediately answer with a list of products made from trees such as paper, pencils, building materials, etc. A few students will say that trees give us oxygen, or give us shade to cool off. While all of that is true, we want students to expand their knowledge and appreciation of trees and the benefits of having them growing around us in the city. Instead of just knowing that trees get cut down to make stuff for us, students can develop a personal connection to trees and appreciate all the ways they help us.
Engage
Show students the “Oak Tree Time Lapse” Video (2:16)
Students will then watch the videos “Life of a 600 Year Old Tree” and “Where do trees get the mass to grow?” in order to discover the answer to the question “Where do trees get their mass?” Students should take notes as they watch in order to be able to engage in a discussion of their findings.
The teacher will ask the question “How do trees get their food?’ The teacher will then lead a discussion introducing the vocabulary term photosynthesis and how it works.
The teacher will lead the students through the celery experiment in order for students to make observations about how trees “do what they do” in making their own food. Students will take notes using a scientific method graphic organizer or their notebooks using the scientific method as they work through the experiment.
Students will participate in a class discussion to share their findings from their experiments.
.
Explore and Explain
Walking Trip to Collect Tree Data
Teacher will lead a discussion about going to a local park and collecting data about the local trees. If no park is available, students can go to the local school yard. Review expectations, goals, and procedures that will be used to collect data.
The teacher will take students to a local park to collect data from local trees. Students will measure the Dbh and height of several different trees. Students should take pictures of trees and their leaves to be used to identify the types of trees in order to be able to research the trees.
Students will then take their data back to the school and use it to identify and research each tree.
Students can create diagrams of their data to share in a jigsaw method with their classmates
Elaborate
Creating signs to communicate findings with the public
The teacher will lead a discussion about how the students could share all they have learned about the wonderful trees in their neighborhood. The teacher should guide the discussion to using signs that the students can create to place near each tree.
The students will use the tree sign template along with their research data on their trees to create posters that will then be laminated and placed near the appropriate tree in the neighborhood .
The students will share their posters with their classmates and the 5th grade for feedback before they are placed near the trees.
Consider working with the 5th grade students to then create a website containing the tree data. The 5th grade can then provide the 4th grade with a QR code to be placed onto the posters before they are placed in the pack.
Teacher Support
Essential Question
Why are trees important to our environment and to our health and well-being?
Guiding Questions
What are the benefits of having trees in our schoolyard or neighborhood?
How are the basic needs of trees met?
How do trees mitigate climate change?
How do you decide where and what trees to plant?
Students will be able to:
Determine the types of trees that are present in their neighborhood.
Determine the ages of the trees in their neighborhood.
Understand the benefits of having trees within their neighborhood.
Understand how trees create their own food sources.
Create signs about the trees in their neighborhood to share their learning with others.
Slide Deck for Mini Unit
Photosynthesis (noun) the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. In plants this generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct
Diameter (noun) a straight line passing through the center of a circle from side to side whose endpoints lie on the circle
Radius (noun) the measure of a distance from the center of any circular object to its outermost edge or boundary
Circumference (noun) a line that goes around or encloses a circle
Stormwater (noun) water is precipitation such as rainfall, snowmelt or irrigation that runs off hard surfaces and across land or into pipes and flows into streams and waterways
Mass (noun) a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape
Xylem (noun) the vascular tissues in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem
Stomata (noun) a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange between the internal air spaces of the leaf and the atmosphere
Create posters to share learning about the local trees with the neighborhood.
Standards (STEELS plus others ):
- B.4.1.2 Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
- B.4.2.3 Describe how matter recycles through an ecosystem (i.e., water cycle, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle).
- S3.A.2.1.1 Generate questions about objects, organisms, or events that can be answered through scientific investigation.
- S3.B.2.1 Identify and describe characteristics of plants and animals that help with their survival.
- STEELS 3.1.4.A Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.