“Dendron” means “tree” in ancient Greek. See more about the word roots philosophy in this blog post. Play around and find other words that use “dendron” at etymonline.com.
Dendrologist You Should Know
Alana Chin was a Ph.D. student in ecology with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences when she found that some redwood leaves make food while others absorb water. The lead types even shift places depending on if the weather is wet or dry! Now Dr. Chin is working in Switzerland. https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/discovery-uncovers-new-leaf-redwoods. https://www.snexplores.org/article/some-redwood-leaves-make-food-while-others-drink-water. https://usys.ethz.ch/en/people/profile.Mjk1NDc4.TGlzdC82MzcsMzIwMTk3MjIy.html
Introducing the topic
I’m putting these in order from the most abstract topics to more specific. The videos also get more and more verbal. Use as many or few as you need.
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/cook/sec2.htm
Experiencing the Science
https://lemonlimeadventures.com/why-pine-cone-science-experiment-for-kids/
https://gardentherapy.ca/herbal-guide-to-pine-needles-how-to-identify-and-use-pine-needles/
https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/conifers/
Analysis and Response
Multisensory
Let’s compare:
| Cones | Flowers |
| Needles | Leaves |
I have had so much luck with body motions lately. Let’s use our bodies to show all the different types of trees. Like: “Simon Says, Be that one [points]!” “Simon says, ‘Float like a Maple seed.’” “Simon Says, ‘Hold your seeds like a cone.” “Be a needle!”
Creative
I did a STEAM lesson once called, “Dance, Plants, Dance!” wherein students choreographed dances to show the way plants move (the tropisms). You could also do motions to show tree adaptations like cones and flowers. We used a plant-related song like the Moss by Cosmo Sheldrake or the Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder.
Try choreography teaching tools like this and this. Here’s another resource like what we did.
The way the classes went were that students were introduced to the idea of tropisms, and then to the mechanics of planning choreography. Next, we gave them their music and the idea that they should choreograph a dance that shows a plant of some kind responding to a stimulus. We talked to them about ways to move their bodies to be like plants, the ways to make dances interesting, and so forth: going back and forth between science instruction and dance instruction. In groups, they planned a 1-2 minute dance, performed it for the class, and received feedback from their audience.
Verbal
Use the CER model to support one of the following statements about trees:
- Trees respond to their environments just as much as animals do.
- Different kinds of trees live in different climates because of their adaptations.
- My favorite tree is __________________.
- I have _________________ different tree species in my yard.
Cite sources and make a bibliography. MLA is a good format, but others are good too. APA is used in science a lot.
Analytical
Let’s correlate the percentage evergreen trees to some sort of independent variable (e.g., nearness to a water source, elevation, soil type). Remember to work in relatively natural areas (not landscaped, not a tree farm, etc.) even though virgin forest is hard to come by.