3. Materials Needed: Digital Camera with a charged battery Memory storage device that is appropriate for the storage system your camera uses Computer Internet access Computer lab or enough computers for small groups to work on
4. Description: Students will use the digital camera and Internet to take pictures of trees in the area, identify them by their leaves, and create multimedia presentations about the trees.
5. Objectives: Students will collect leaf samples of native trees for identification. Students will identify trees by their leaves. Students will gather information about each species of tree. Students will create web pages or presentations that identify local trees and give specific information regarding each species.
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7. 2d Communication and Collaboration - contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
8. 3c Research and Information Fluency - evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
9. 4c Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making - collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
10. 5a Digital Citizenship - advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
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12. Implementation: Take students in small groups or as a class on a walk around your school and/or neighborhood, local park, nature walk, etc. -anywhere there is a variety of tree species. Each student, in turn, takes an up close picture of the leaves of as many different species of trees as possible. Do not tell the students what kind of tree each sample is taken from. Students will be predicting the species later and then using the Internet to discover what each species is. During planning time or after school, insert the pictures into a word document that is saved to the school network so that all students may access it or onto your class web page. Number each photo, but do not label it with species or common name. The next class session, have students access the word document or web page with the pictures of the leaves. Allow students to predict/guess what kind of tree each leaf came from. The assign small groups or partners a certain number of leaves to identify (example: Joe and Sally work together to identify number of leaves # 1-4).
13. Implementation (Cont.): Direct students to http://www.oplin.org/tree/ to identify each tree by its leaves. Students should find the genus species as well as the common name of each tree. Once the tree is identified, students should find more information regarding each tree such as: Is it native to our region? Is it deciduous or coniferous? Does it produce blossoms, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc? What is its rate of growth? What is the tree commonly used for? Have each group create a simple web page, Power Point presentation, etc., that contains the information gathered on each tree. You may also want to make their original pictures available to them to place on the web page/ presentation. (Be sure to discuss copyright, plagiarism, and how to cite sources.) Each group should share their web page or presentation in a blog posts for others to comment on.
14. Integrate Technology Extension: Create an online collaboration by linking up with a school that would have different native trees, post your finding on a blog, and ask other classrooms to submit pictures of their native trees. Use this to discuss seed migration, how the type of tree and its use impacted the settlement of the area, etc.
15. Website Resources for identifying trees and gathering data: http://www.oplin.org/tree/ http://www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/forsite/idleaf.htm (info on how to identify leaves) http://www.enature.com/guides/select_Trees.asp http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?init=Species (search for information on a particular species) http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/woodies.html (by common name or species name) http://www.treeguide.com http://poster.hprtec.org/
16. Resources for creating blogs, web pages or presentations: Editor software: MS Front Page, Macromedia Dreamweaver Presentation Software: Microsoft PowerPoint, animoto.com, jaycut.com Communication Resource: edublogs.com, facebook page, twitter
