This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

• define silvics
• use a key to identify a variety of local trees with their scientific and common names
• describe the habitat requirements of a variety of local trees
• compare characteristics of angiosperms and gymnosperms
• describe functions of and relationship between parts of gymnosperms and angiosperms
• identify the form and function of woody plant tissues

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Challenge students to create keys to identify local trees (e.g., using leaf or needle shapes, colours, structures; bark features; tree shapes). Encourage them to test their keys in the field. Then provide students with published keys to use and compare to their own.
• Have students collect a variety of tree samples, photographs, or drawings, and classify and identify them-with common and scientific names-using texts and field guides. Students could add mounted specimens, drawings, or photos to their plant portfolios. Previously collected specimens could also be brought in at this point. Discuss restrictions and guidelines for environmentally sensitive collection.
• Challenge students to dissect, draw, and label the parts of a tree's reproductive cycle (e.g., male and female cones, flowers). Ask students to research differences between gymnosperms and angiosperms (compare the characteristics, functions, and life cycles of each), then present an explanation in a poster or electronic form.
• Set up a multistation activity to demonstrate characteristics of a variety of gymnosperms and angiosperms. Provide live specimens, CD-ROMs, texts, videos, photographs, microscope slides, and models at each station.
• Ask students to arrange cone, bark, and foliage samples into groups according to characteristics. Challenge students to use as many senses as possible to determine the characteristics of each group, thus creating their own classification procedures for tree identification.
• Ask students to prepare thin cross sections of conifer branches, stain them, examine them by microscope, and relate them to both primary and secondary growth. Have them draw and label different parts of the vascular system (including xylem, phloem, and cambium).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• Have students take an inventory of trees during a field study of a local area. Ask them to use this information and other sources to develop identification guides for the trees in the area. Note the extent to which students:
  • include information on habitat requirements and characteristics of trees
  • show awareness of scientific classification techniques
  • use scientific terminology accurately
• Have students exchange their identification guides and use them to identify trees in an outdoor setting. Ask students to assess the efficiency of the identification guides they use. Each assessment should include at least two comments regarding the strengths of the guide and one suggestion for improving it.
• Ask students to create flash cards for learning and reinforcing basic information (e.g., tree parts and their functions, scientific and common names). Check to ensure that the information included on the cards is correct, and then ask students to quiz one another using the cards. Circulate and listen for evidence that student responses are correct and are becoming increasingly rapid through repeated review.
• Have students research the characteristics of angiosperms and gymnosperms. Provide options for students to present their findings in a variety of ways (e.g., written reports, charts, posters, computer simulations, dramatic presentations). Note the extent to which they are able to:
  • identify similarities and differences in structures and processes
  • include accurate and detailed information
  • organize and present information clearly

• Plants of Coastal British Columbia
• Plants of Northern British Columbia
• Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia
• Plants of the Western Boreal Forest & Aspen Parkland
• Tree Book: Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia
• Trees, Shrubs and Flowers to Know in British Columbia & Washington

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