Trees

Alex Fredrich, McKenna Hammons, and Marissa Kaminski

Grade Band: 3-5

Green and Health School Focus Areas: Environmental and Sustainability Education

Possible subject areas addressed by lesson: Natural Sciences and Biology

https://freeclipartimage.com/article/top-83-tree-clip-art

TreesAdaptations and Life Cycles

Essential Questions:1. How do trees adapt to their habitat?2. How do trees gain the resources they need to grow from a seed to a mature tree?

Learning Outcomes: 1. Students can describe different characteristics of trees.2. Students can identify the tree life cycle and be able to explain it.3. Students can recognize life cycle terminology.

Materials:1. Crayons2. Paper3. Word search4. Appropriate outdoor wear5. Chalk and a Board

Standards:WI Model Academic Standards for Environmental EducationB.4.1 Describe the flow of energy* in natural systems, citing the sun as the source of energy* on the earth; e.g., a food chain (see SC Physical Science)B.4.2 Illustrate how they use energy* in their daily livesB.4.6 Cite examples of how different organisms adapt to their habitat*

WI Common Core State Standards- ScienceC.4.2 Use the science content being learned to ask questions, plan investigations, make observations, make predictions, and offer explanations

Background:While there are some things in life humans can live without, trees are not one of them.

Trees started evolving approximately 420 million years ago from basic vascular plants into what

we know them as today (UW-Lacrosse 2010). From this major evolution, trees have adapted

into what they are today. They fall into two classes, either coniferous or deciduous trees, and

have multiple adaptations from there. For instance, coniferous trees such as red pine or balsam

fir have needles whereas maple, oak, and others have leaves. Adaptations range from leaves or

needles on trees to the shape of trees and even the bark. Some trees have flaky bark while

others is like paper, and some is rough while others’ is very smooth. These differences not only

classify trees into different categories, but also help trees survive in different ways.

While adaptations put trees into different categories, the life cycles are fairly similar

across the board. Trees start as seeds, move on to seedlings, then to saplings before they are

considered an adult tree which will eventually turn into a nurse log and the cycle will begin

again. Nurse logs are also known as rotting logs, and they provide a lot of habitat for forest

creatures along with protecting young plants due to their surplus of nutrients.

A good way to relate a tree’s life cycle to a child is to explain it like you would a human

life cycle. Trees follow a similar life cycle, although it is not nearly as complicated. Seeds sprout

once they feel safe and have the proper environment (Woodland Trust). Sprouting includes

pushing a stem out of the soil and starting roots beneath the soil. Once sprouts are larger, they

are considered seedlings. Seedlings are weak and vulnerable to diseases, and are considered

as such until they are approximately 3 feet tall. After that, they are considered saplings which

are weaker versions of mature trees. They are flexible and their bark is not as distinct, along

with being unable to produce flowers or fruit. The last stage in a tree’s life cycle is becoming a

mature tree. Trees peak at different ages, but mature trees are stiff and can produce fruit along

with having distinct bark.

Leaf Characteristics:1. Bring class outside for 5 minutes. The goal is to find the leaf that they find the most interesting. It can be a pine needle, maple leaf, cedar fascicle/needle.

2. Bring them back in the classroom for a leaf rubbing. All members participate by creating a beautiful picture of their leaf on paper with crayons. Leaf rubbings work best by placing a leaf under a piece of white paper, and using the side of a crayon to rub the details of the leaf onto the paper.

3. Once everyone is finished with their leaf rubbing bring the class back to attention. Using a powerpoint or other presentation tool, describe different leaf characteristics to the class. These include but are not limited to margin, serration, lobes, sinuses, and veins for deciduous leaves, and fasicles for conifer needles. Students can label these characteristics on their leaf rubbing.

4. Test the students knowledge of these newly learned characteristics. Describe a leaf to them using the newly learned characteristics and ask them to raise their leaf in the air if it matches the description given. Tell the students what type of leave that is. Continue this until all leaves have been identified.

Life Cycle:1. Explain how there are 6 factors to the life cycle of a tree, and that they will become

familiar with these through a word search. Pass out the word search and let everyone solve it.

2. Write 1-6 on the board in chalk with a good amount of spaces in between each number. Once everyone solves the word search ask them to shout out the words that they found and put them on the board in the order that they are suppose to go in. Which is seed, sprout, seedling, sapling, mature/adult tree, rotting log/snag.

3. Then go through each part of the cycle and make a list of words or phrases that remind them of each cycle. For instance for a seed someone could shout out soil, water, or sunlight. Because these are things that seeds need to grow and survive. For the last phase, a dead tree/rotting log people could shout out things like damp, fungus, or animal habitat.

4. Then everyone will be divided into six groups by counting 1-6. They will be asked to draw one part of the life cycle of a tree. They will need to remember to include some of the words that are up on the board in that cycle. Then we will have each group explain what they drew and why, and discuss each cycle.

5. For figuring out what they learned hold pictures up of each cycle and talk about how the pictures are different than the life cycles that they drew. For a recap ask what terms of the life cycle they learned today. Ask students to define terms and compare and contrast the different parts of a life cycle.

Assessment:The students will complete a word search and discuss each term found. This will allow them to learn the “learning outcomes” by teaching them the different terms in each cycle. By drawing a picture and making a list of the life cycles they will learn which each part consists of. The end of class recap and discussion about the different life cycles will also be an evaluation of what they learned.

Differentiation:The lesson will be thoroughly explained and allow time for questions. The lesson can be completed in any environment with a tree present, so it will be able to be completed by anyone with a physical limitation. Pairing students with a partner or a group for the word search will help in cases of learning disabilities.

References:Panich, Justin. “Adaptations.” Adaptations, UW-La Crosse, 2010,

bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/2010/panich_just/Site/Adaptations.html.This source was used for background information on tree adaptations in Wisconsin.

“Tree Lifecycle.” Project Learning Tree, www.plt.org/family-activity/tree-lifecycle/.]

This source helped gain information for the life cycle portion of the lesson, and we based an activity off of this activity.

“Tree Life Stages.” Tree Life Stages, www.arborday.org/trees/lifestages/youth.cfm. This source was helpful in obtaining information on tree life stages and the details of what happens at each stage.

Pollinators

Alex Fredrich, McKenna Hammons, and Marissa Kaminski

Grade Band: 3-5

Green and Health School Focus Areas: Environmental and Sustainability Education

Possible subject areas addressed by lesson: Natural Sciences and Biology

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_pictures/Animals/Arthropods/Hymenoptera

PollinatorsPollination and Happy Dances

Essential Questions:1. What ecosystem services do pollinators provide and why does it matter to us?

Learning Outcomes: 1. Students can demonstrate the pollination process.

2. Students can recognize and pinpoint different pollinators.

Materials:1.) Muffin cups2.) 4 different colors of kool-aid3.) Cotton balls4.) Cotton swabs5.) Pictures of flowers and the specific pollinator for each

Standards:Wisconsin Standards for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

AS1.a.2.e: Recognize products and the animals that the products are derived from. Wisconsin Model Academic Standards for Environmental Education

A.4.4 Communicate their understanding to others in simple terms (see LA Writing)Wisconsin Science Standards

F.4.4 Using the science themes*, develop explanations* for the connections among living and non-living things in various environmentsNext Generation Science Standards3-LS2-1 Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members

survive.

Background: Pollinators are an essential part of our everyday lives. Annually, the pollination process

produces $40 billion worth of products in the United States alone. The act of pollination itself is

the physical movement of pollen from one flower to another. This movement occurs via the wind

or animals. Animal pollinators include bees, bats, butterflies, hummingbirds, and a large array of

varying insects and other animal species.

The shape and color of the flower has a great amount of influence on which animals can

pollinate it. Birds pollinate flowers that are tubular and brightly colored. These flowers tend to

have no smell to attract the birds because birds have a poor sense of smell. Bats pollinate

flowers that are open during the nighttime, pale or white in color, and very fragrant. Bees

pollinate flowers that are brightly colored, very sweet smelling, and provide an area for them to

land.

Animals physically move pollen by it sticking to their body after visiting one flower, and

then falling off when they land on another. Some of these species purposefully move pollen,

such as bees. Bees collect pollen to help feed their colony. Other species are enticed to land on

the flower, by the nectar the flower provides them, and the pollen sticks to them.

Bees rely on pollen and nectar to feed their colony. To fill this demand, bees need a lot

of it. Bees work together to accomplish this and share with others in their colony where they

found some. This is done through the waggle dance. The waggle dance is a series of body

movements that convey the direction and distance from the hive this resource was found. (PBS)

Procedure:1. Explain to students what pollination is, then let them explore for themselves how the

process works. Set up 4 muffin cups with one cotton ball inside each, and pour a different color of kool-aid powder into each. Give each student a cotton swab, and let them be the pollinator, collecting pollen as they go. What is happening to the colors, are they moving?

2. So who moves pollen? Many different species are specially adapted to pollinate different flowers. Let’s play a matching game! With pictures of flowers and pictures of pollinators, get students to match the specific pollinator to each flower. Pictures are provided with this lesson. Some are small and require small pollinators such as flies, some are large and require larger pollinators like hummingbirds. Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes. (Don’t forget some plants are even pollinated by the wind dispersing the pollen for them.)

3. How do bees, one of the most commonly known pollinators, pollinate flowers? They do the waggle dance of course! Get students up and moving by teaching them the waggle dance and letting them perform it themselves. There is a helpful video from PBS in the reference section to explain this.

4. Once students are seated again ask them what they learned today. What happened to the colors of the ‘flowers’ as more students pollinated them? How many ‘flowers’ were they able to pollinate individually? What did you notice about the specific pollinator and flower combinations, do size and color of flowers play a role in who pollinates them?

Assessment:

The students will play a matching game to pair up pollinators and flowers and discuss why that pollinator and flower combination work together. Students are also prompted to reflect on what they learned at the end of the lesson.

Differentiation:If a student is unable to perform the waggle dance with their entire body, they may perform it with their hands only by placing them in front of themselves palms together and moving them in a motion similar to a swimming fish. The game of matching the pollinator to their plant may be performed on an individual, small group, or entire class level. This way it is adaptable to each class.

References:

11.08.12, Posted. “The Waggle Dance.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/waggle-dance.html.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/waggle-dance.htmlThis link is to a video about the bee waggle dance. The short 3 minute video explains what the waggle dance is, how bees perform it, and then gives examples of adult humans performing it. We will use this video to supplement the lesson.

Animal Pollination, www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals.http://pollinator.or g This site provides the basics of what pollination is and how individuals can get involved to help save the decreasing number of pollinators. This can be used as a call to action at the end of the lesson if students want to learn more this is a great resource (and easy to remember).

Animal Pollination, www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals.https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/bats.shtmlThis is another site that provides a good information base. This site contains a large list of pollinators other than bees, and the type of flowers these pollinators are attracted to. We will use this source for the activity of matching pollinators to the types of flowers they pollinate.

Mining and Deforestation

Alex Fredrich, McKenna Hammons, and Marissa Kaminski

Grade Band: 5-6

Green and Health School Focus Areas: Environmental Health, Water

Possible subject areas addressed by lesson: Natural Sciences and Biology

https://pixabay.com/en/photos/employee/?image_type=vector

https://pixabay.com/en/photos/lumberjack/

Impacts on the EnvironmentMining and Deforestation

Essential Questions:1. How do the activities we perform affect the environment, and how can we mitigate these

effects?2. How does the structure of the forest change over time?

Learning Outcomes: 1. Students will be able to explain and understand the impacts that mining has on the

environment and the natural areas that surround the mining site.2. Students will be able to explain and understand how deforestation affects wildlife,

surrounding ecosystems, and the overall health of a forest.

Materials:1. Chocolate chip cookies, or gluten free chocolate chip cookies2. Spoons/knives3. Paper4. Marker/Colored pencils

Standards:C.4.4 Identify some of the decisions and actions related to the issueB.8.18 Identify major air, water, or land pollutants and their sourcesD.4.2 Identify and give examples of short-term and long-term solutions to a problem*B.8.15 Analyze how people impact their environment through resource use

Background:

Mining has a huge negative impact on the environment around the mining site. By

mining for a specific material it is hoped that just the material will be taken from the

environment, but in reality mining has large impacts on the wildlife, ecosystem, and waterways

that surround the site. It is difficult to mine one material without the whole land area that

surrounds what is being mined. As stated by the article Environmental Impacts of Coal Power,

“Surface coal mining may dramatically alter the landscape. Coal companies throughout the

Appalachian often remove entire mountain tops to expose coal below” (Environmental Impacts

of Coal Power: Fuel Supply. 2017). This is an extremely invasive process in order to obtain one

thing from the land. Coal mining is not as simple as most people think, and destroys an

abundance of healthy landmass. Another term for surface coal mining is strip mining, which is

appropriately named for the large amounts of land that is stripped away in order to get to the

coal. Erosion of the torn-up environment of a mining site can happen, as well as the

contamination of water. Because of the erosion factor to mining and the fact that there is loose

and torn up soil, sediments often become suspended in nearby waterways (A Cheap but Dirty

Fuel Source. 2014). This affects the ecosystem of this area and can have a negative impact on the

plants in the water, the aquatic animal life, and ultimately all wildlife who obtain their water

from this source. Chemicals and other waste from coal mining can often get into the groundwater

and aquifers as well. There are regulations on coal mining and the environmental impacts that it

can have, but it is still not enough to save the surrounding areas of coal mining. In order to start

the process of mining, certain places need to be stripped and cleared of everything to get to the

coal, which means that deforestation is also an affect coal mining.

There are many reasons why deforestation can happen, but no matter the cause, it is not

an environmental friendly and good practice for the habitat and animals in that area.

Deforestation can happen to clear a way for a coal mining operation, to clear fields for

agriculture or cattle, to harvest timber, to clear land for houses, or to obtain palm tree oil

(Bradford, Alina. 2015). These are some of the main reasons why a forest might be cut down, but

there are many more reasons as well. No matter the reason, the land that was once healthy and

full of trees is dramatically affected because of this. In this process many species lose their home

and are often killed, soil is able to erode, the waterways are affected, and people’s health is

affected. The eroding soil negatively impacts the waterways, which affect the nearby people.

While trees are not able to absorb rainfall and clean waterways, instead runoff occurs and nearby

streams become even more polluted. Deforestation creates an unhealthy and barren landscape

that has many negative impacts to the people, animals, and environment. Deforestation is not

only uprooting the trees, but also the animals and health of the people and environment.

Bibliography:

“A Cheap but Dirty Fuel Source.” The World Counts, 5 Aug. 2014, www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Negative-Effects-of-Coal-Mining.

This site explains many different effects that coal mining has. It talked about coal mining in waterways and groundwater, in the air and atmosphere, the health effects, erosion, wildlife displacement, deforestation, and how it speeds up global warming. This site helped me distinguish between not only the fact that coal mining destroys the site that it is at, but also has lasting negative impacts that go further than just a specific land area. It was used in the background paper.

Bradford, Alina. “Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects.” LiveScience, Purch, 4 Mar. 2015, www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html.

This site helped explain what deforestation is, all the reasons why a forest may be cut down, and the different impact that it has. This site showed me that deforestation doesn’t affect one thing, it affects the people, animal, and environment in this area. This helped me figure out if the deforestation activity was appropriate and it was used in the background.

“Environmental Impacts of Coal Power: Fuel Supply.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017,www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/coal-and-other-fossil-fuels/mining#.WeVnQFtSzIU.

This site explains exactly how invasive mining can be and the negative effects of mining on the environment. It touches on how coal has negative impact on waterways, forest, and the general land area surrounding the site. I used this site to figure out just how invasive coal mining is, and if the “cookie skit” is really a good interpretation of coal mining.

Mining:

1. Pass out a piece of paper and have the class draw a bird's eye view of a body of water, a healthy forest, a field, etc. Then pass out cookies to the class and watch their excitement grow! Pass out spoons/knives. Then tell them that they have to take all of the chocolate chips out of the cookies. Watch as most of their entire cookie gets destroyed as they try to take just the chocolate chips out of the cookie.

2. Explain how strip mining is extremely invasive even though it is necessary and is something that we use every day. While they may be going for just one thing in an environment most of the surrounding area gets destroyed as well. Then tell them to (lightly!) blow on their cookies and see where the crumbs land up. There could be erosion, heavy winds, and much more where the mining debri gets in waterways, healthy forest, and other places where it should not be. Talk about this with the class and the negative impacts.

3. Then pass out whole cookies that the class can eat! Then discuss what they class learned today while they enjoy their cookies. Questions that can be asked to facilitate discussion are what in the environment is affected from mining? How does this affect clean water? How does this affect the animals living around there?

Deforestation:

4. The next activity also deals with impacts on the environment but this time deals with deforestation. The class is given paper and crayons and instructed to draw what they think a healthy forest looks like.

5. Once everyone has drawn this they are instructed to rip their paper in half. This represent deforestation and the harvesting of these trees. Talk about how trees are deforested for lots of uses. For instance the paper that they are using, chairs, desks, other furniture, pencils, and many more. On the other side of their new half sheet they have to draw what they think a forest will look like once the trees have been harvested. Once again there will be no age diversity in the new environment that is drawn. Therefore no older, or taller trees, that is why the paper is ripped in half as well. Any trees that they draw will have to be smaller than the previous trees that they drew before the “deforestation” because the paper is now half as tall as it was before.

6. We will then discuss the drawing and what people added in them. What negatives come of deforestation to the environment. We could then ask anyone if they have solutions to deforestation and make a list on the board of how we can make an impact/solutions.

Assessment:The students will openly discuss as a class how mining and deforestation affects the environment, after each activity is done. This give the teacher a chance to assess how much they learned, and to educate them on a subject if they are confused or have questions. By completing the activity they should be able to explain what the activity taught them and how it relates to deforestation and mining. This teaches them the two learning outcomes of the activity. They will be able to explain impacts of mining and deforestation.

Differentiation:

For the mining skit the teacher should ask if any students cannot consume gluten or dairy in the form of cookies or chocolate the day before the activity. If a student cannot eat one of these then gluten free cookies or dairy free cookies should be bought to include these kids in the activity as well.

Different learning styles include a hands on activity for the mining exercise and a verbal discussion after. Then a visual aid will be provided for the deforestation and a verbal discussion afterwards. This is to address some different ways that students can learn, some students are more visual learners, while others learn from a discussion or a lecture.

This exercise is not a physically tasking activity, so all of the students should be able to either complete the exercise or work on it with someone else. While if a student is feeling jittery and would like to stand or stretch while doing this activity they are welcome to.

The lesson is a half an hour lesson plan and should make sure to incorporate all of the needs of the students in order to sufficiently teach them, and make sure that they have an enjoyable and fun time learning.