Lower elementary (PreK-2)
3 class periods
Nature is all around us, even in cities. In this lesson, students explore trees in an urban environment to learn about what they need to survive and how they help humans and other animals living in cities.
Through the Natural Inquirer Reader (a publication for young learners) “Meet Dr. Roman!,” students learn that trees have certain needs to survive, including soil, air, water, space to grow, and sunlight. Trees provide shade and offer other benefits for people living in cities and animals, too.
Dr. Roman studied trees in cities to see what helped them grow and how people felt about them. With your students, read the text, ask the Critical Thinking Questions, and use the “Try This!” activity to prepare them for conducting their own tree studies.
Through reading about Dr. Roman’s studies, your students have learned that trees rely on other parts of the natural world (water, soil, air) to survive, and that humans and animals rely on trees. To further expand how different parts of the world are connected, read the GLOBE Elementary storybook All About Earth: Our World on Stage. (This storybook is my personal favorite!)
In this storybook, the GLOBE students are preparing a play for their school that demonstrates the role of different parts of the Earth system. Each student thinks the part they play is the most important. After a lengthy discussion, they learn that all the parts are important and connected together.
Your students can expand upon what they witnessed in the storybook by making their own connections between the Earth’s systems using the GLOBE activity We’re All Connected: Earth System Interactions (pdf). Take the students outside to observe interactions between air, water, soil, living things, and the sun. For instance, they might find a damp part of the playground where water is soaking into the soil.
Now that they’ve made connections between the Earth’s components, your students can study trees in their local environment using GLOBE’s Tree Height protocol, which can be found within the Biometry protocol (pdf) or by using the Tree Height tool in the GLOBE Observer app.
How healthy are the trees around your educational setting? Your students can use the measurements they’ve collected along with what they learned through the readings and activities to answer this question.
If you’re not familiar with the Tree Height protocols, I recommend you take the eTraining associated with it, as well as the Introduction to Biosphere training. Both of these can be found on the Biosphere training page. Look for the title “BIOMETRY - Graminoid, Tree, and Shrub Height.”
The GLOBE resources listed in this blog relate to the following Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Disciplinary Core Ideas:
Acknowledgement: This material is based upon work supported by USDA Forest Service Eastern Region (Agreement no. 20-PA-11090100-026). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA Forest Service.
This blog post is part of the GLOBE and the Natural Inquirer Crosswalk Project . Other blog posts are available on the U.S. GLOBE Teacher Resources page .
Natural Inquirer issues can be downloaded and classroom sets of many issues can be ordered from their website. Find the complete list of issues available and instructions for ordering on the Natural Inquirer website .
