1. The American Chestnut Tree

2. Student Objectives Wednesday, April 26, 2017
During today’s lesson students will be able to:
Use various characteristics of the leaves of trees to identify different types of trees.
Calculate the age of a tree based on the number of rings a cross section of a tree shows.
Compare and contrast the nuts and burs of American chestnut trees and Chinese chestnut trees.

3. Warm-Up How can a botanist identify the age of a tree?
What characteristics of trees might a botanist look at in order to identify the type of tree it is?
What is the difference between a nut and a bur?
Note: A botanist is someone who studies trees and plants.

4. Today in class… Chestnut Box Activities: Stations: “Age of a Tree”
“Nuts and Burs”
“Leaves of Trees”
DVD clip is about 3 minutes long.

5. Got Chestnuts?! Chestnut Box Activities Leaves of trees Tree rings
Come explore with me!
Leaves of trees
Nuts and Burs
Show the first scene of the Chestnut video (provided by the American Chestnut Foundation)
Chestnut Box
Activities 5

6. Chestnut Box Activities Stations:
Today you are going to work in groups to complete 3 stations using the materials provided in the “Chestnut Box”. You will be given approximately minutes to complete each station before you are asked to rotate.

7. Station 1- “Age of a Tree”
At this station you will:
Read “What to Know..” on the Age of A Tree- Chestnut Box Activity worksheet.
Complete the “How Old Are You?” activity
Complete the “How Old is Charlie?” activity

8. Station 2- “Leaves of Trees”
At this station you will:
Read “What to Know..” on the Leaves of Trees- Chestnut Box Activity worksheet.
Examine the laminated American chestnut leaf and the Chinese chestnut leaf. Use the information in the “Leaf it to Charlie” activity to you distinguish between the American chestnut leaf and the Chinese chestnut leaf.
Complete the “Leaf it to Charlie” lab activity.

9. Station 3- “Nuts and Burs”
At this station you will:
Read “What to Know..” on the Nuts and Burs of Trees- Chestnut Box Activity worksheet.
Complete the activity “Going Nuts.”
Discuss the American chestnut tree as a food source.

10. Sum it Up!
Now that you have completed all three stations be prepared to share your finding with the rest of the class.
If time permits or you wish to investigate any of these topics further complete one or more of the extension activities from each station.

11. Conclusion- Ticket Out
What might cause the rings of the tree to be different sizes from year to year?
Name two characteristics on a you looked at to help you identify the type of tree the leaf came from.
What is the difference between a pollinated nut and an unpollinated nut?