Student Pages
These Student Pages provide concrete opportunities for guided instruction. Student Pages can be printed out or shared electronically with learners for completion.
Level B — Evaluate
Use the following suggestions to assess student understanding and learning at the beginning, middle, and end of the Level B lessons.
Pre-Assessment
Use students’ comparisons in Step 2 of the Engage: Growing Up Green activity to determine their understanding of what plants need to grow. Reflect on their responses to the questions posed in Step 3 to assess their initial ideas about seasonal changes in trees.
Formative Assessment
- Periodically analyze students’ tree journals, noting:
- Detail in students’ observations and how appropriately they identify observed patterns over time.
- How accurately they record daylight data and observations.
- During 3: Every Tree for Itself, assess whether students’ conclusions about plant needs are supported by their observations.
- During 4: Bursting Buds, assess the appropriateness and detail of students’ observations.
Final Performance Assessment
Part 1: Assess students’ understanding of the changes in daylight hours over the course of the year using the Daylight Hours student page. If this was not completed as part of the 4: Bursting Buds activity, provide students with copies of the student page and show them how to use the data previously collected in their My Tree Journals to complete it. Then, challenge students to graph the data using the template provided.
Part 2: Give students copies of the Seasons Tree Chart student page (or paper plates folded in quarters and labeled with the four seasons). Using the labeled paper plate and the Daylight Hours student page, instruct students to:
- Draw a picture that represents how your tree looked in the Fall, Winter, and Spring, adding as much detail as you can.
- In each quadrant—Fall, Winter, and Spring – write a sentence that describes what is happening with the hours of daylight and the tree in each season. For example: In the fall, the leaves on my tree turned red and fell off and the days got shorter. In the winter, my tree was bare and the days started to get longer, but it was cold.
- In the Summer quadrant, predict what your tree will look like and what will happen with the hours of daylight.
Use the suggested Performance Assessment Sample Rubric teacher page to score student results.
Level B — Explore, Explain, Elaborate
This arrangement of lessons moves students through the stages of exploration, explanation, and elaboration. True to constructivist pedagogy, students move through these phases in a linear fashion as they begin by testing ideas to develop knowledge, and then modify and refine those ideas as appropriate to answer questions and extend conceptual understanding. PLT recommends moving through each of the following lessons sequentially, to scaffold student learning over time.
In Level B, students move through the lessons below to answer the following Essential Questions:
- How does the amount of sunlight in winter compare with the amount at other times of the year?
- How does the changing amount of sunlight impact trees?
1: Adopt a Tree
2: Signs of Fall
3: Every Tree for Itself
4: Bursting Buds
Level B — Engage: Growing Up Green
Students consider what trees and other plants need to grow and then reflect on questions about how plants grow.
Time
40 minutes
Materials
- Small tree or other plant in a pot
- Old magazines to cut up (optional)
- Paper or journals
- Crayons or colored pencils
Vocabulary
tree, daylight
Getting Ready
- Gather the materials.
Doing the Activity
- Begin by having students label the top of a paper or journal page with “What My Body Needs to Grow.” Then have students draw, write, or cut out pictures from magazines to illustrate their ideas. Have students share their ideas about what people need to grow.
- Show students the potted tree or plant and ask them what they would do to care for the plant. Have them label the back of the paper or another journal page with “What Plants Need to Grow.” Have students share their ideas about what plants need to grow.
- Lead a discussion about what trees and other plants need to live. Consider using collaborative discussion strategies for leading the discussion. Explore such questions as:
- What do you think trees and other plants need to grow?
- How are your body’s needs the same as and different from plants’ needs?
- (For each thing that students name) How do you know that trees and other plants need this? What evidence do you have to support your idea?
- How do you think we could test our ideas to see if they’re correct?
- What other questions do you have about trees that you’d like to explore? (Students’ questions might include: Does a tree need sunlight to live? How much sunlight does a tree need? Why do tree leaves change colors? Why do some trees lose their leaves in winter?)
Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.
Level A — Tools
Student Pages
These Student Pages provide concrete opportunities for guided instruction. Student Pages can be printed out or shared electronically with learners for completion.
Teacher Pages
Treemendous Science! — GreenSchools
PLT’s GreenSchools program inspires students to take personal responsibility for improving the environment at their school, at home, and in their community. Students, teachers, and school staff members receive tools, training, and resources for student-led Green Teams to create healthier schools—and to save schools money! PLT GreenSchools helps improve students’ academic performance, develops students’ critical thinking skills, and grows student leaders.
Five hands-on, student-driven Investigations are at the heart of the PLT GreenSchools program. You can view and download each of the following investigations by registering as a PLT GreenSchool or by purchasing a print copy of GreenSchools Investigations. We also offer online training to help you effectively engage your students in conducting investigations in your own educational setting, and provide tips for obtaining equipment and collecting data. The five investigations focus on the following topic areas:
- Energy – Investigate how much energy your school uses, the main sources of that energy, and ways to implement energy-saving strategies.
- Environmental Quality – Investigate areas where improvements can be made in indoor air quality, transportation, chemical use, and more.
- School Site – Investigate natural habitats, wildlife, trees, grounds maintenance practices, and ways to make improvements to your school site.
- Waste and Recycling – Investigate how much waste your school generates and where it goes, as well as recycling and composting efforts.
- Water – Investigate the source, cost, and quality of your school’s water supply, and ways to enhance current water conservation practices.
Registered PLT GreenSchools are eligible to apply for GreenWorks grants. Our GreenWorks program provides grants to schools and youth organizations to engage students with their local community and complete service-learning, environmental-improvement projects. Grant applications are due annually on September 30th.
K-2 Modifications
The modifications presented below offer suggestions for adapting the content presented in PLT’s GreenSchools materials for use with the Treemendous Science! unit at each student level:
Level A – Kindergarten
Use the GreenSchools program’s School Site investigation with students to help build upon the concepts explore in this unit. Have students make observations about the green spaces in and around their school and community, such as noting the number of trees in each outdoor green space.
Level B – Grade 1
Engage students and deepen their understanding with the GreenSchool’s program’s Energy investigation. Have students collect temperature data near a window at different times of the day. When documenting this data, students should also note whether their data point’s side of the school is mostly sunny or shady. Have the class discuss whether trees are providing this shade, and the effects this might have on room temperature and energy use.
Level C – Grade 2
Engage in additional place-based learning with the GreenSchool’s program’s School Site investigation. Have your class map the school site and note the number, location, and type of greenspaces (lawn, playground, park, etc.). Students should be able to note what living and non-living things are found at those sites and how the sites are alike or different than other sites nearby. Conduct regular visits and record observations of plants, trees, animals, and spaces over the course of the school year, noting changes and patterns. The practice of drawing and field sketching might also be introduced.
New GreenSchools Investigations for Early Childhood
PLT’s GreenSchools for Early Childhood program presents environmental experiences through art, movement, sensory exploration, and time outdoors, all of which are inherently appealing to young children. It includes Early Childhood Engagement Activities, Early Learner Worksheets, and a Classroom Action Book template developed for children ages 4 to 8. These resources are available online, following a brief registration.
Level A — Evaluate
Use the following suggestions to assess student understanding and learning at the beginning, middle, and end of the Level A lessons.
Pre-Assessment
Students’ drawings in the Engage: Picture a Tree lesson can serve as a pre-assessment for the unit. Look at their drawings and note the level of detail students provide: Do they recognize different parts of a tree, such as the trunk, branches, and leaves? Or does their tree more closely resemble a lollipop? Do they include other elements in the environment, such as animals, other plants, clouds, or the sun?
Formative Assessment
- Compare students’ drawing of a tree in 1: The Closer You Look to those in the Engage: Picture a Tree lesson.
- Check that students constructed their tree vests in 2: To Be a Tree appropriately.
- Periodically review entries from students’ tree journals, checking for increased level of detail in drawings of observations and appropriate articulation of patterns in tree growth and weather.
Final Performance Assessment
Part 1: To assess students’ understanding of tree parts and what trees need to stay alive, give them a copy of the My Tree and Me student page. Have them draw a picture of their adopted tree in the box indicated, including all the different tree parts they observed (such as trunk, bark, leaves, seeds, and roots). Direct them to add things the tree needs to stay alive (such as sunlight and water). On the other half of the page, have them draw a picture of themselves.
Conduct a short interview with each student as follows, recording their ideas on the worksheet:
- Name the parts of the tree. How does each part help the tree?
- Using the picture of you, describe how you’re like a tree and how you’re different. (Follow-up questions might include: How do you get food and water? What about trees? How do they get what they need to grow?) Record student responses on the worksheet.
Part 2: Use students’ drawing from Step 10 of the Adopt a Tree activity to assess their understanding of the changes in the tree and in weather over time. Meet with individual students and ask them to explain their pictures and to describe the patterns, encouraging them to support their ideas with evidence from their journals.
Use the suggested Performance Assessment Sample Rubric teacher page to score student results.
Level A — Explore, Explain, Elaborate
This arrangement of lessons moves students through the stages of exploration, explanation, and elaboration. True to constructivist pedagogy, students move through these phases in a linear fashion as they first begin by testing ideas to develop knowledge, and then modify and refine those ideas as appropriate to answer questions and extend conceptual understanding. PLT recommends moving through each of the following lessons sequentially, to scaffold student learning over time.
In Level A, students move through the lessons below to answer the following Essential Questions:
- What patterns do you observe in your tree over time?
- What evidence can you find of how weather impacts your tree?
- How can you use those observations to predict how weather might impact your tree in the future?
Level A — Engage: Picture a Tree
This activity introduces the unit by having students draw a picture of tree from memory. As they explore trees close up through the other unit activities, they will draw new pictures and compare them with the original pictures they draw.
Time
30 minutes
Materials
- drawing paper
- crayons or markers
- flip chart (optional)
Vocabulary
tree, branch, leaf, trunk, roots
Getting Ready
Gather the materials.
Doing the Activity
- Have students close their eyes and picture a tree. Encourage them to think about the overall shape of the tree, how the branches are connected, and the texture of the trunk and leaves.
- Give students drawing paper and crayons or markers, and ask them to draw a picture of their tree from memory. Have them share their pictures in small groups and discuss how their drawings are alike and different. (Consider using collaborative discussion strategies for leading the discussion.)
- As a whole class, have the small groups share the similarities and differences they found. (You may record their responses on the board or flip chart to help build student vocabulary and word recognition.)
- Introduce the Treemendous Science! unit by leading a discussion about trees:
- How did you know what to draw?
- What do you know about trees?
- What questions do you have about trees?
- How could we learn even more about trees?
- What kinds of information could we gather?
- How might we go about getting that information?
- What do you think a scientist might do to learn about trees?
- Save student pictures for Lesson 1: The Closer You Look.
Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.
Forest Animals
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