Overview
Key Considerations
Lessons
Learning Outcomes
Project Goals
- Students are connected to and develop understanding of the natural spaces around them
- Students engage in authentic scientific inquiry
- Students understand threats posed by hemlock woolly adelgid and have the skills and resources needed to address these threats.
- Maine and New Hampshire Forest services receive important data on the distribution of highly invasive plant species.
- Teachers are supported in this work with resources that are adaptable to a range of teaching and learning contexts.
Time Estimate
11 to 15 class periods
Audience
5-8
Learning Space
Classroom ·
Outdoor
Protocols must be followed for data contribution. Professional hemlock woolly adelgid surveys require ten trees to be checked. Do your best to reach as close to this number as possible with your class. Review the detailed protocols and required equipment on the Project Hemlock Woolly Adelgid webpage.
Location and Timing:
Find a location with hemlock trees to conduct fieldwork. Have students survey the area around the school or search for hemlocks yourself. Use the Eastern hemlock and balsam fir (commonly confused with eastern hemlock) identification resources on the Project Hemlock Woolly Adelgid webpage to help you.
Additional curriculum resources:
This resource is designed to develop students' ecosystem undertsandings. For curriculum focused on building data literacy through citizen science, see the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid Data Investigation. If you have students looking to do an independent study, see the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Independent Study.
Lesson 1: You research questions
In this brief introduction to the project, students explore the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid project page. They begin to gather information on the purpose of the project. All information on these landing pages will be reinforced in other parts of the investigation.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Project Page
Lesson 2: A hemlock forest ecosystem
Students read about hemlock trees to learn about their role in the larger forest ecosystems and create a diagram showing species connections within a hemlock forest ecosystem.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Hemlock reading
Lesson 3: The spread of hemlock woolly adelgid
Students learn how hemlock woolly adelgid moves through a forest and affects hemlock trees through an interactive modeling activity. In a second run-through of the activity, they model how climate change leaves the hemlock trees more vulnerable to infestation.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class Slides | Place Cards and Datasheets | Dispersal Cards
Lesson 4: The citizen science protocol
Students learn about what they will do to collect data on hemlock woolly adelgid and create identification guides to help them with spotting hemlocks and hemlock woolly adelgid out in the field.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Hemlock woolly adelgid protocol and ID resources
Lesson 5: Fieldwork practice
Students practice their identification skills at interactive stations. If time permits, they can reinforce their identification and knowledge of the protocol with the online quiz game, Kahoot! and by going over the protocol in fieldwork teams.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Hemlock woolly adelgid protocol and ID resources | Fieldwork Skills Stations | Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Kahoot
Lesson 6: Collect Data
Students look for hemlocks and hemlock woolly adelgid and record data on what they do or do not find.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Hemlock woolly adelgid protocol and ID resources
Lesson 7: Contribute Data
Students submit the data to the Ecosystem Investigation Network.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Contribute Data | Guide: When Not Found is Good
Lesson 8: Synthesize findings
Students use what they learned from the investigation to make predictions about the future of hemlock forests.
Teacher Guide | Student Pages | Class slides | Summative Assessment Rubric