Maple Syrup and Climate Change

This activity introduces students to the structures of trees, issues of climate change, and the impacts of climate change on landscape (i.e. maple trees).

Teachers show a cross-section of a tree on the smart board or other projection device. 

Or

Teachers can explain that as the climate warms (changes) in areas rich with sugar maple trees, the ability to collect high volumes of maple sap will decrease. For example, maple trees in Quebec are not sustainable in the northern region, which stresses the importance that climate change will have long-term impacts on maple syrup production in Canada.

- Read the link "Maple Trees Have Nowhere to Go" (provided in this lesson plan) to introduce students to issues of climate change. 

- Use prompt questions to stimulate thinking and discussion: "What do you notice?"; "What do you wonder?"

Guiding question for the educator:

How are your students ‘seeing it (the vision)’?

Physical learners - can interact with the image of a cross-section of a tree, which will generate questions through inquiry.

Intellectual learners - For climate change, having an article read aloud will make content accessible to learners, particularly when including a whole-class discussion with prompting questions. 

This activity allows the student to explore maple trees and to identify the different structures within them. This is also an activity to explore the impacts of climate change on maple trees.

Students examine a cross-sectional slice of a maple tree trunk (if you do not have access to maple tree slices use a digital image, such as the one shared in the first activity). Students then Identify:

• Heartwood - this is the dark non-living wood at the core of the tree’s trunk. Heartwood forms when the xylem cells plug up with resins and minerals. Heartwood supports the tree.
• Xylem - this transports sweet water (sap) up from the roots to the leaves. It is also known as sapwood.
• Cambium - this is the growing layer of cells. The cells divide, producing phloem to the outside and xylem to the inside of the tree.
• Phloem - this is the tissue in the tree that transports sweet water (sap) down from the leaves to the roots. When phloem dies it becomes bark.
• Bark - this is the dead, outside covering on trees. The bark protects the trees from excessive water loss, injury, insects, disease, weather, herbivores, etc.

Students can create their own cross-sectional representation of a maple tree trunk, identifying each of the structures and note their function(s).  Students can work individually or collaboratively.  Their cross sections can be simple drawings or more creative 2-D or 3-D representations.

For climate change inquiry, students identify the locations where maple sugar trees grow naturally (consider by region for example). Students can ask themselves: "Why might sugar maple trees grow more easily in the Deciduous Forest Region as opposed to other regions more north or south?", "Perhaps animals, soil, and temperature are potential factors?",  "What are other possible considerations?"

In connection with the video resources provided with this lesson plan series, please have students investigate what might happen if Indigenous people are unable to practice collecting and processing maple sap each spring.

Guiding questions for the educator:

- "How are your students ‘relating to’ the vision?"

- "How are your students ‘figuring it (the vision) out’?"

Physical learners will be able to interact with the cross-sectional slice of the tree to explore the structural elements of a tree.

Intellectual learners will be able to consider the functions of the different structures of the trees and how these functions support the production of sweet water. The climate change activity involves scientific research, which will be intellectually stimulating when exploring different regions. 

This activity allows students to explore:

i) maximum/minimum scatter plots and;

ii) how temperature impacts the flow of sweet water.

Option 1 - Climate Change and Mathematics:

Students explore maximum/minimum temperature graphs; teachers can relate this to the flow of sweet water. While exploring scatter plots for maple syrup harvesting season, ask students to make predictions about when the flow rate of the sweet water will be at its peak.

Examples of scatter plots are found in Finding the sweet spot: Shifting optimal climate for maple syrup production in North America. This open source paper is useful background reading when considering the impacts of climate change on maple syrup production.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112719303019

To establish comparison data, students can collect and represent their own maximum/minimum temperature data over a short period of time. It is ideal to conduct this activity during the maple syrup harvesting season so students can identify what days and weeks might yield high volumes of sweet water.

Option 2 - Science (Cross Section):

- The class, as a whole group, becomes familiar with a cross section of a tree.

- Students then break into small groups to investigate the different components of a tree's structure and the role each component plays in supporting the life of the tree, e.g. bark, roots, leaves, etc.

Guiding questions for the educator:

- How are your students ‘relating to’ the vision?

- How are your students ‘figuring it (the vision) out’?

Physical learners will be able to interact with the graphs and collect their own temperature data outside their school. While doing research on the component of the tree (i.e. bark) that was assigned to their small group, students can also post their findings on a life-sized tree cut-out in the classroom.

Intellectual learners will be able to consider how maximum/minimum temperature allows us to make predictions about the best time to harvest sweet water and when one might yield high volumes. 

This activity allows time for the students to consolidate and reflect on their learning.

i) Educators begin with a guided discussion as a whole class for students to reflect upon their learning.

ii) Their learning concepts, gleaned through the class discussion, can be summarized using either science or mathematics.

Guiding Questions to the students:

"What captured your attention and what was new information?" This applies to the graphing, cross-sectional, and inquiry research projects on climate change.

"Consider the implications of climate change in light of the exploration of maximum/minimum temperature. Referring to NCCIE's videos and the Nanabozho and the Maple Trees story (see Lesson Plan Foundations), what might be the consequence or impact of climate change on maple trees? How might not practicing the harvesting of maple sap as much, due to climate change, be problematic for Anishinaabe and other Indigenous Peoples who have strong relationships with Land?" 

Guiding question for the educator:

"How are your students ‘doing’ the vision?"

Spiritual and emotional learners can relate the impacts of climate change to: i) human's relationship with maple trees; and ii) the Indigenous teachings shared while collecting and processing sweet water.

Intellectual learners can reflect on the impacts of climate change with regard to the sweet water yield, both for Indigenous Peoples and Canada's maple syrup industry.

Physical learners can reflect on the tactile object (life-size tree cut-out) they produced as a class, which explains each component of the tree's cross-section as it relates to the tree's ability to live.