Sugar Maple Tree Observations–Part 3

[Kristin Joivell]

The second school year of time lapse camera data collection begins as my class investigates the changes a sugar maple tree goes through!  For each seasonal check in, I am taking a photograph of the sugar maple tree on approximately the same date as last school year so that students can compare and contrast the data from both years.

Just like last school year, in addition to the daily time lapse photographs, my kindergarten students are writing observations about and drawing sketches of the sugar maple tree in science journals once per season.  Again, all student sketches and writing is done independently, so I write the words spelled correctly at the bottom of their papers to “translate” what they are writing for readers.  As you can see from their journal entries, some students noticed that the tree unevenly dropped its leaves this year.

The fall photographs of the whole sugar maple tree really show the differences in the leaf color change from last year to this year!  Last year’s leaves changed to brilliant orange and yellow, but this year’s leaves quickly changed to light green and light yellow and fell off much earlier.  As you can see from the two photographs, there was a considerable difference, even though the photographs were taken on almost the same exact date from each year.

Sugar Maple Tree on October 17, 2016

Sugar Maple Tree on October 20, 2017

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