Jennifer+Clifford

Jennifer Clifford

Final Project - Getting to Know the Trees

A Project for Botany/Zoology - Grades 11 and 12

Goals:
 * Observe trees in your area and communicate data to others
 * Identify trees by using dichotomous keys and field guides
 * Be able to identify common trees in your area without the aid of a field guide, such as oak, elm, maple, and ash.
 * Become familiar with resources about trees and nature, browse sites related


 * Standards Aligned:**
 * STATE GOAL 11: Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments and solve problems. **
 * 11.A.4c ** Collect, organize and analyze data accurately and precisely.
 * NETS Standards Aligned:**
 * Creativity and Innovation:** Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
 * Community and Collaboration:** Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

[] Using our school laptops, students will be introduced to the Getting to Know the Trees LiveBinder and the resources that are available to them. We will start by going through the project description and grading criteria. Students will then be introduced to each of the resources that are available to them on LiveBinders.
 * Initial Enganging Activity: Introduction to LiveBinders (one class period)**
 * LiveBinders link for this project:**



Students will watch the YouTube video Tree Identification Part 1 and 2 and will fill in the accompanying worksheet.
 * Class Period 1 and 2 - Learning to identify Trees and Acompanying Worksheet**

media type="youtube" key="6_GIHFED6a4" height="315" width="420"

media type="youtube" key="kUNpfz-38OI" height="315" width="420" Using a selection of common Illinois Trees and the accompanying Photostory, students will attemp to match the actual leaves with the examples in the Photostory.
 * Class Period 3 - Match the Leaf Activity - Photostory**

media type="file" key="Common Illinois Trees.wmv" width="300" height="300"

Students will upload their tree and leaf digital pictures to our collaborative class bulletin board on stixys.com
 * Class Period 4 - Uploading Student Pictures to Stixys ([|www.stixy.com])**




 * Reinforcing Activity: Students will be given a digital group quiz on 15 common trees in Illinois. They will be able to use our stixys bulletin board, and any digital resources they were provided in the project.**

This project is an excellent use of technology. All students will be engaged and actively looking for their species of leaves. The only addition we think she could add is the use of a manipulative. Have students work in groups and race to see if they can match the bag of real leaves to the names of the leaves/trees they came from. The stixy site is a great source of collaboration and immediate feedback for the students.
 * Comments(3)**