Looking at Vegetative Growth and Elevation

Grade Level: 3-5

Lesson Background:

In this series of lessons, students will explore explanations for why treeline occurs on mountains. Students may explore a data-based approach, comparing temperature and precipitation data for two locations at different elevations. Students may investigate different life zones and how plants have adapted to life in these varied environmental conditions. Students may also investigate how climate change impacts alpine environments and what that means for the future of mountain plant communities.

Lesson Resources:

• Lesson Plan (PDF)
• Lesson Plan (Word Doc)
• Lesson Plan Data
• gVeg User Guide
• Walter-Lieth Diagram Guide

Possible Guiding Questions:

Why is there a treeline? How can certain areas have similar climate but very different vegetation? How have different plants adapted to different elevations? How might climate change impact vegetation patterns on mountains?

Possible Instructional Uses:

You may use this phenomenon to explore the relationship between environmental conditions and elevation, life zones, adaptations to different ecosystems, and climate change’s impact on vegetation.

Performance Expectation Connections:

3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that observable traits can be influenced by the environment.

3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

3-ESS2-2. Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Science and Engineering Practices

• Engaging in Argument From Evidence
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts

• Patterns
• Cause and Effect

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• Inheritance of Traits
• Variation of Traits
• Adaptation
• Weather and Climate