Tremendous Trees or Tree-mendous Trees encourages students to use inquisitive and creative behaviors, to think like a scientist. The module extends the Essential Strategies of Attributes and Questioning introduced in Kindergarten and First Grade. Students use questions to approach problems and identify attributes to sort, classify, and make inferences to create analogies on observational data about our world using this module for all students. The classroom teacher should work with a specialist or special educator to find or develop alternate activities or resources for visually impaired students, where appropriate.

New York City in the 1860s was a mess: crowded, disgusting, filled with garbage. You see, way back in 1860, there were no subways, just cobblestone streets. That is, until Alfred Ely Beach had the idea for a fan-powered train that would travel underground. On February 26, 1870, after fifty-eight days of drilling and painting and plastering, Beach unveiled his masterpiece—and throngs of visitors took turns swooshing down the track. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Think about the way most people in your community travel. Invent a new way of traveling around your community that takes into account the following: helpful to the community, economical to those who use it, convenient for users. What would your new travel system look like? Sketch a new design, and then create a physical prototype of the new design to scale. Keep in mind: Where the system travels, how it is powered, why it is helpful to the community, and any features that make it special.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Area: Structure & Info Processing

This First Grade unit is the SECOND in the curriculum of three (3) units developed to address the First Grade science standards of the Michigan Science Standards related to Structure and Information Processing.

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Students will observe how plants and animals have offspring and some may look similar but not exactly like their parents/adults.  Students will explore how plants and animals have features (external and internal) that allow them to survive, grow, and meet their needs.   Students will make many observations about plant and animal parts and how they use their parts to help them survive. They will observe how different plants and animals support their offspring in survival.  Students will classify similar animals that  can vary in many ways.  Students will then apply their understanding of plant and animal survival in order to gain ideas about how to engineer something to solve a human problem.  Students will use their knowledge of plant and animal parts  to mimic one of these parts to design a solution to a human problem.  Students will construct explanations and models for multiple engineering tasks.

The teacher leads a discussion in which students identify the physical needs of animals, and then speculate on the needs of plants. With guidance from the teacher, the students then help design an experiment that can take place in the classroom to test whether or not plants need light and water in order to grow. Sunflower seeds are planted in plastic cups, and once germinated, are exposed to different conditions. In particular, within the classroom setting it is easy to test for the effects of light versus darkness, and watered versus non-watered conditions. During exposure of the plants to these different conditions, students measure growth of the seedlings every few days using non-standard measurement. After a few weeks, they compare the growth of plants exposed to the different conditions, and make pictorial bar graphs that demonstrate these comparisons.

Emma Lilian Todd was a self-taught engineer who tackled one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Design a new mode of transportation (air, sea, or ground) or select a current mode of transportation and improve it then use household items to create a prototype of your new or updated invention.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Zaha Hadid grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, and dreamed of designing her own cities. After studying architecture in London, she opened her own studio and started designing buildings. But as a Muslim woman, Hadid faced many obstacles. Determined to succeed, she worked hard for many years, and achieved her goals—and now you can see the buildings Hadid has designed all over the world. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Identify an area in your school that is very traditional. Redesign it to better fit the needs of the end-users. Then sketch out a new design, and then create a physical prototype of the new design to scale.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.