Introduction
Students will continue their investigation of trees by:

1. Further developing criteria for tree identification.
2. Identifying and categorizing trees according to these criteria.
3. Using the tree identification key (May Watts Tree Finder from the Forester's Trunk) to identify trees on the school grounds.

Questions

1. What criteria do we use to identify trees?
2. Can we use these criteria and the tree identification key (May Watts Tree Finder from the Forester's Trunk) to identify the trees on the school grounds?

Materials
Tree identification key (May Watts Tree Finder from the Forester's Trunk)
Other tree books
Herbarium sheets from the Forester's Trunk inventory

Procedures

1. Review your discussions from lesson 1 on the attributes of trees. Students should understand that scientists use a number of criteria to identify trees, but the simplest method is using leaves.
2. To use the tree identification key (May Watts Tree Finder from the Forester's Trunk), students will need to be familiar with several vocabulary terms such as opposite, alternate, pinnate, parallel, serrated, lobed, compound, simple, etc. You may choose to teach these terms ahead of time, or simply introduce them as the students encounter them. The set of slides showing the important terms with illustrations in the Forester's Trunk would be very helpful, if available.
3. Practice using the tree identification key. Using the leaves you have available, let the students attempt to identify the leaves using the tree identification key. Help them as needed. Once they have the idea of how to use it, take them outside to identify the trees on the school grounds. You may all work together, or have small groups responsible for certain trees, etc.

Helpful Hints
Not all landscape trees used here in the midwest will be in the tree identification key, because they do not normally grow around here. You might want to have a more comprehensive identification book available to help with those.

Someone in your school probably has the master landscape plan which you can use to be sure students get the correct answers.

Many times it is sufficient to have students identify only the genus, and not be concerned with the specific species (i.e. the ashes or oaks etc.). If scientific naming (binomial nomenclature) is part of your curriculum, this is a perfect place to introduce it. Students are often curious about the scientific names in books and will ask about them.