Treemendous Science!
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Treemendous Science! E-Unit
Whether you regularly use the outdoors as a classroom or tend to hesitate every time you take your class outside, this online curriculum unit is an invitation to increase the quantity and quality of your K-2 learners’ contact with nature and trees. Students explore and collect tree data to develop understandings about how trees grow, the roles trees play in ecosystems, and the ways in which trees and humans interact.
A unique feature of Treemendous Science! is that it’s organized around three levels, which approximately correspond to kindergarten (Level A), first grade (Level B), and second grade (Level C). You have the option of presenting one level in its entirety or picking and choosing from the different levels, depending on the needs and competencies of your student population.
Activity Features
- Designed to develop students’ critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, activities are multidisciplinary and flexible.
- Detailed step-by-step lesson plans
- Downloadable student pages to guide learning including Google Classroom-ready files.
- A range of assessment tools, including pre-and post-assessments and evaluation rubrics
- Easy-to-understand teacher background information
- Comprehensive, interactive connections to academic standards
- A self-paced online workshop with video demonstrations of the activities and lesson-planning exercises
- Suggestions for fiction and non-fiction books to enhance the activities
- Links to websites, videos, and other supplementary resources
The Treemendous Science! e-unit explores these essential questions:
- What patterns can we see in trees over time?
- How do humans and trees interact?
- What role do trees play in ecosystems?
- What can we learn about trees and their habitats by closely observing them?
- How are habitats alike and different?
Testimonials
Here’s what a few teachers have said about PLT’s Treemendous Science! e-unit:
“PLT’s Treemendous Science! e-unit is hands-on, easy to follow, and can be easily manipulated to fit a teacher’s time, materials, and teaching preferences. It is a great jumping off point for teachers new to teaching about the natural world and a great resource for those that have some of these elements already embedded in their teaching.” – Heather Tate, Kindergarten lead teacher at Evergreen Community Charter School, Asheville, North Carolina
“What a great unit for First Grade! I am definitely using it—possibly all year—for my science. Thanks to PLT, my theme this year is ‘trees.’ I’m psyched!” – Denise Brown, Rockaway Park, New York.
“I have completed the entire K-2 Treemendous Science! Unit. It was pure pleasure and very helpful and informative to me as a K-5 science teacher. I will definitely utilize this curriculum and recommend it to colleagues.” – Marcia Raubenstrauch, Ridgway, Pennsylvania
“I have to tell you, I am enamored!! I would LOVE to use this wonderful unit in my kindergarten classroom this school year!” – Linda Duchnick, Patterson, California
Adopt a Tree
By “adopting” a tree and observing it over time, students practice their observation skills, look for patterns, and develop a personal connection to the adopted tree.
Bursting Buds
Students observe leaf buds over time to see what happens as the tiny, bright green leaves burst forth.
Every Tree for Itself
This simulation helps students model and understand the conditions that trees need to live and grow.
Get in Touch with Trees
Students explore the parts of a tree through mystery boxes, a blindfolded walk, and by sorting different leaves. This activity sharpens observation skills and descriptive vocabulary of trees and tree parts.
Habitat Pen Pals
Students learn about the diversity of habitats in their state and write letters from the perspective of organisms living in those habitats.
Picture a Tree
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 drew.
Schoolyard Safari
Students look for signs of animals living in and around trees in the schoolyard, observing how a tree can serve as a habitat or as one part of habitat.
Signs of Fall
Students observe signs of autumn and gather data about trees on or near the school site as fall approaches.
The Closer You Look
Students observe trees and collect data about them. They then draw a picture of a tree and compare and contrast it to the one they drew in the Engage: Picture a Tree activity.
To Be a Tree
Students create a model tree costume, which helps them gain a deeper understanding of the form and function of the basic tree parts. This activity serves as an initial exploration into tree growth and provides a foundation for more observations.
Trees as Habitats
Students inventory the plants and animals that live in, on, and around trees and discover how plants and animals depend on trees in many ways.
Comprehensive Standard Alignment
PLT’s Treemendous Science! E-Unit is built to teach to the standards and includes comprehensive and interactive tooltips throughout the lessons to reference academic standards.
Activities are:
- Constructed around – rather than simply correlated to – targeted performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). They build on one another to foster students’ understanding and skills for meeting specific standards.
- Aligned with the Common Core State Standards for both English Language Arts and Mathematics.
- Aligned with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies.
- Organized around the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E Instructional Model – engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.
Each level is built on the following Performance Expectations for Life Science and Environmental Science included in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):
- K-LS1-1 – From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
- K-ESS2-1 – Earth’s Systems. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
- 1-ESS-1-2 – Earth’s Place in the Universe: Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.
- 2-LS4-1 – Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
- 2-PS1-1 – Matter and Its Interactions. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
This unit is designed around the 5E Instructional Model, which incorporates the elements of engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation (see Figure 1).
The unit also follows the guidelines for best STEM practices as outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards’ eight Science and Engineering Practices. They include:
- Ask questions (science) and define problems (engineering).
- Develop and use models.
- Plan and carry out investigations.
- Analyze and interpret data.
- Use mathematics and computational thinking.
- Construct explanations (science) and design solutions (engineering).
- Engage in argument from evidence.
- Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information.
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Picture a Tree
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 drew.
Habitat Pen Pals
Students learn about the diversity of habitats in their state and write letters from the perspective of organisms living in those habitats.
Schoolyard Safari
Students look for signs of animals living in and around trees in the schoolyard, observing how a tree can serve as a habitat or as one part of habitat.
Trees as Habitats
Students inventory the plants and animals that live in, on, and around trees and discover how plants and animals depend on trees in many ways.