How Do Teachers help their students to
SEE Their TREES THROUGH THE DATA?
Here's How One Teacher is Doing it...
Overlook Middle School Teacher, JoAnn Mossman continues to add layers of learning for her students eight years into Schoolyard Ecology study at Overlook Middle School.
During the Looking at Data Workshop for Teachers at Harvard Forest on Dec. 8th, JoAnn developed a series of resources to help students approach graphing their project data step by step.
Joanne's Data Goals :
I definitely want to have the kids do one graph by hand so I'm looking to see if there is an easier way to access the data using the online database for them to pull out the correct info. to graph. I also want them to learn to generate the graphs from the HF site like we can, maybe this would be appropriate for the more difficult graphs/data. They need both experiences.
In this blog entry, you will see how JoAnn breaks this down in a way students can understand and succeed in creating graphs of their own data. She wants students students to learn to organize their data in such a way as to be able to represent the data visually in graphs that will help them to understand what story their data is telling. Each of the worksheets can be downloaded from our website for use in other classrooms. Please see links at the bottom of this blog to access them.
Step 1:
Students look at the growing season of all of our trees created
with the HF graphing site. We have 2 years with particularly sharp drops in
growing season. JoAnn left the graph up on the board the whole time. The class discusses what the Julian Day means and how it is easier to analyze data using that
rather than a specific date.
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The graph above, also created using the online graphing tool, shows the selected variable as a function of date (one or more trees), day of the year (one tree), or year (one or more trees). The legend shows the ID number and species code for each tree. Growing Season is the number of days between the 50% bud burst date and the 50% leaf fall date.
Step 2:
Teacher JoAnn Mossman, passed out bud burst edited data and the graphing data
worksheet as shown below. She then showed them how to find their tree and bud burst day. While they
are working she walks around and tell them the Julian Day of their birthday so
they get the idea.
Note that this table would go on year by year to most recent data. In this case, Overlook Middle School has data up through Fall 2017 to work with. Full data for this site is available on the database and as an Excel file in links below.
Students do the same with their leaf fall edited data packet.
Note that this table would also extend through most recent year's data.
Step 3. Students calculate the growing season each year for their tree.
Students then use the growing season data sheet to check their math.
Step 4: Students graph their tree's growing season.
It should look
like the one up on the board (from the HF website). If it doesn't look the same the class will talk about why and check their data and graphing.
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| Students combined growing season for all trees on the graph above using Google Sheets |
Note: Teachers can choose to have students generate a graph using Excel or Google Sheets, such as the one above; hand graph; or use other graphing programs as preferred.
Step 5. Students will analyze their graphs and answer questions such as:
Which year did your tree experience
the longest (and shortest) growing season? What factors may have contributed to
the length of that season?
Do you see a trend in the number of
days for your tree's growing season (going up or down)? What is the average
number of days?
Links to the worksheets used for this sequence of lesson plans:
Mossman.2017. Budburst Data Table.
Mossman.2017. Leaf Fall Data Table.
Mossman.2017. Growing Season Calculation Worksheet.
Mossman.2017. Excel Growing Season Graphing Template.
Mossman.2017. Growing Season Data Table.
Link to Student Graphs:
Links to Database:
Download Data_list.php
HF Online Graphing Tools.php
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