Land Use

Students will learn the basic parts of a tree and their functions in acquiring the survival needs of water, sunshine, food, and air. Students will learn how adaptation allows trees to compete effectively for these limited resources, and students will learn how competition relates to invasive exotic species and their effect on the growth and composition of the forest. This lesson is best suited for grades 3-6 and adheres to Pennsylvania State Science Standards.

Students will broaden their awareness about conserving natural resources while learning to make recycled paper. They will identify what resources are made into paper, discuss the value of intact forests, and determine ways to use less paper. This lesson is best suited for grades K-4 and adheres to California Science Content Standards.

In this lesson, students learn about the importance of forests and vegetation in preventing soil erosion caused by water. They construct a hill that slopes gently from one end of the pan to the other and predict what will happen when the group sprinkles water on its hill. They compare their results and formulate a hypothesis, as a class. This lesson is best suited for grades 3-6 and adheres to Oklahoma Science, Math, Reading and Visual Literacy Standards.

In this lesson, students will explore how maple sugaring began. Through an in-class demonstration, they will experience the ways pioneers and Indians produced sugar. Through stories and hands-on learning, they will come to appreciate the importance of maple sugaring in the pioneer culture. This lesson is best suited for grades K-3 and adheres to Pennsylvania State Science Standards.

Can people survive without forests? Can forests survive without people? In this lesson, students will find the answers to these important questions. Students will listen to a giant, old oak explain to a little sapling how people and forests must co-exist in the video Forest Family Forever! with Ed Asner. This lesson is best suited for grades 1-2 and adheres to South Carolina State Science Standards.

Students describe a forest as a living community. They determine how members interact and, in many cases, depend on each other for their basic survival needs. Students investigate how dependent the Native Americans were on the forest community for survival and discover that even today we too are dependent on plants for survival. This lesson is best suited for grade 3 and correlates to New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards.

The Finding My Forest Curriculum provides educators hands-on activities for grades 3-8 to help students discover and relate to public forests and lands in their community. The guide includes four lessons to help students build a lifetime of active and thoughtful engagement with forests and other natural spaces. The activities are aligned with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) benchmarks for excellence in environmental education, and are indexed with national standards for language arts, science, math, social studies and more.

Students take a walk around the schoolyard to study and identify the trees. One leaf for each tree is collected. A chart is developed that represents the population of trees on the schoolground. This lesson is best suited for grades 2-4 and adheres to Florida State Science Standards.

Our friends at the US Forest Service, together the Ad Council, have developed a website dedicated to connecting young people with our forests and parks. Visit the site to find a forest near you, browse the photo gallery and download outdoor activities.

Tree growth takes place not only above the ground, but below. The nutrients necessary for plant growth are available under only very specific conditions for each tree species. Trees have adjusted after great lengths of time to very specific environmental conditions that existed long before humankind came on the scene. When we place a tree in an urban setting, we need to see that its needs are met. The site that a tree lives in will be modified by the tree, if the situation is not hostile.