Description

To a primary student, the oak on the corner, the pines at the park, and the mulberry tree at school are all phenomena. Systematic investigation of trees over the seasons will bring students to a better understanding of the place of trees at school and in the community. Students will observe day-to-day changes in weather over the year, as well as the impact weather has on living things. The anchor phenomenon for this module is that trees are plants that live and grow through the seasons. The driving questions are what do trees need to live and grow?  How does weather affect trees?  What changes do trees cause in their surroundings?

The Trees and Weather Module provides students with solid experiences to help them develop an understanding of what plants (and animals) need to survive and the relationship between their needs and where they live. By monitoring local weather, students experience the patterns and variations in weather and come to understand the importance of weather forecasts to prepare for severe weather.

Throughout the module, students engage in science and engineering practices by asking questions, participating in collaborative investigations, observing, recording, and interpreting data to build explanations, and obtaining information from photographs. Students gain experiences that will contribute to an understanding of the crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; structure and function; and stability and change.