ingridscience

Take students outdoors where there are several bushes and trees.
Show students how to identify the pattern of leaves on the branches of trees or bushes - look a little way down the stem where the leaves are more spaced out. In the winter, when deciduous leaves have dropped, look at the pattern of the leaf buds. Draw on paper/portable white board to make the pattern clear.

Alternate: one leaf emerges from one side of the stem, the next leaf along from the other side.
Opposite: two leaves emerge from the same place on the stem, but on different sides.
Whorled: several leaves emerge from the same place on the stem.

Identify the trees as they are studied.
I found this free Vancouver Street Trees iphone App which identifies trees on Vancouver streets by location.

Students can use a map to mark where they found each kind of pattern.
Or they can make a Venn diagram of the plants they find and the growth pattern(s) they exhibit.
Note that different students may see different patterns in the same tree. Sometimes the patterns are not clear, especially if the leaves are close together at the tip of the stem.

Extension: look at the patterns of the veins in leaves (opposite or alternate) and compare to the leaf growth pattern from the stem in the same plant.

Discussion:
Although leaves have different patterns in how they grow, all the patterns ensure that the leaves are well spaced out around the stem. This allows each leaf to catch as much light as possible for the plant.
Through evolution, leaves that spread their leaves out were at an advantage over other plants, and this adaptation persisted.

The actual mechanism for leaf growth patterns (called phyllotaxis) involves a molecule called auxin, and is a current area of research.
Auxin is constantly flowing up the stem towards the growing tip. Where there is a lot of auxin, a new leaf grows. Auxin is drawn towards where a new leaf is growing, and is pulled away from the surrounding areas, depleting them of auxin. This means, as more auxin moves up the stem, it collects in areas further away from the last leaf. Once enough auxin builds up a new leaf grows, on the other side of the stem from the last leaf.
See this webpage for a visual: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Model-for-the-role-of-polar-auxin-t…

The growth of all living things is a result of their molecules flowing, interacting and changing, setting up patterns that we see in the structure of plants and animals e.g. patterns of ribs or body segments.

Please note that in a class of students it is likely that one of them is at least partially colourblind (1 in 12 males are colourblind). As this is an activity distinguishing colours, these students will not be able to tell some colours apart and perceive some colours differently, although the activity will be no less interesting for them. The common red/green colour blindness means reds and greens (or colours containing reds and greens such as browns) look similar. More information at colourblindawareness.org and colorblindguide.com/post/the-advantage-of-being-colorblind.

This is an engaging activity. Student get involved in creating works of art that look like the surroundings.

Students work in pairs, or maximum groups of three. Each group has a pipe cleaner square and a tub of small pieces of modelling clay in a variety of colours.
Each group decides where to place their pipe cleaner square.

While one (or two) student(s) looks away, the other student makes a small ball of modelling clay of one colour, and places it in the square. The clay cannot have anything placed on top of it - it must be in plain sight.
The second student then looks and tries to find the clay.
Then the students switch tasks.
Black and brown modelling clay is often the hardest to find outdoors, matching the dirt between grass blades.
This kind of camouflage is an example of "colour matching". Animals are often colour matched to their environment to make them harder to find.

Another kind of camouflage is "disruptive colouration" where a living thing is more than one colour, maybe with spots or stripes. The different colours break up the outline of the living thing and make it harder to see.
Another level of camouflage is to have an "irregular outline", so the shape of the object is not what is expected. Some fish have decorated heads, or insects look like a leaf.
Students can try adding these layers of camouflage to their colour matching, by adding different colours of clay and changing the shape of their clay before hiding it. The final object should be about the same size of the first ball (as a tiny speck of clay will be an unfair challenge).

Examples of outdoor variations that students came up with: making a long piece of clay to look like a stick on the ground, or a piece of gray and black clay shaped to look like other little rocks on the ground, matching the colour of peeling paint on a fence, or even matching the colour of bird poop on a rock! (see this website for animals camouflaging to look like bird poop: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/heres-looking-at-poo-the-weird-and-…)
Examples of indoor variations include hiding colours in a collection of coloured art supplies, or adding extra coloured patches to coloured tags. Posters or other flat materials are easier for finding hidden clay on, as the clay is the only raised part and reflects the light differently.

Students can spend quite a while making works of art that can be a challenge to find by most in the class. Student groups and adults will enjoy visiting particularly challenging hides.

Please note the likelihood of a colourblind student in the class. Colourblindness can also be an advantage:
https://lifeonsphere.com/color-blind-people-can-spot-and-see-through-ca…
https://www.science.org/content/article/eye-camouflage#:~:text=Being%20….

Animals using different methods of camouflage:
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/8-creatures-that-are-masters-of-disguise

Webpages with lists of camouflage types:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_camouflage_methods
https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~vijay/BLAST/Lesson_5.html

NOTE: this activity has not been tested with a class of students. Please contact me with suggestions if you try it with students.

Cut the top off the 2L bottle, where the neck widens to the main body.
Tape a ruler on the inside of the bottle, the numbers facing outwards, with zero at the base of where the sides are parallel.
Add clean rocks (to weigh it down) then place in a shady location (to minimize water evaporation) with open sky above (no nearby wall or overhanging branches). Insert the top of the bottle upside down, and clip together.
Make sure the rain gauge is sitting level, then fill with water until the water line is at the zero on the ruler.

Hourly (if there is a lot of rain) or daily/weekly, read off how much rain has fallen. After each reading, either take apart and reset to the water line at zero on the ruler, or record the difference in mm of rain from the last reading.
Tabulate and graph the readings.

Optional set up to get more accurate readings:
Attach a narrow tube to the mouth of the bottle, so that the depth of water will change more dramatically for smaller readings.
Before adding the tube to the system, calculate the scale to add to the tube: calculate the relative surface area of the circles at the top of the 2L drink bottle and the small tube. This will be the relative difference between the spacing on the two scales (e.g. if the 2L bottle circle is 4 times larger, the scale on the small tube will be 4 times more spaced out). Calculate and write a new scale on electrical tape and tape to the side of the narrow tube, before inserting on the mouth of the bottle. Then clip the rain gauge together, as before.

To give a sense of what readings to expect, light rain is only 1mm an hour or less. To read 5mm in an hour it needs to be steady solid rain.

Note that despite the placement of the rain gauge, there will be some evaporation, so readings will not be as accurate as a professional rain gauge. A professional rain gauge style is "tipping bucket" - the rain fills up a little bucket, which is dumped and counted as it becomes full, hence there is way less sitting water to evaporate.

Students build a motor into a simple electric circuit: a battery and motor, connected into a loop with wires, using masking tape to attach the wires to each component. When the loop of the circuit is closed, the shaft on the motor will turn, but often so fast that it might be hard to see - put your finger on it to feel it turn.

Once students have their motor working, show them the card stock and other materials, which they can tape to the shaft of the motor.
Ideas:
Fan - a small circle of card with angled blades blows air.
Saw - a small circle of card with a serrated edge can cut through a piece of tin foil or thin paper.
Colour wheel - add colours to a circle of card. When it spins the colours blur together.

Students can also add holiday lights into the circuit - see the helicopter in the last photo.

Prepare the foam ahead of class:
Make a small hole with scissors in the end of a piece of foam and push the tube/pen cap into it. A skewer inserted into the tube allows the foam to spin freely on the skewer.
Make small holes in an egg carton cups and push a skewer through them. Hot glue the skewer in place. (Note: the skewers are a little long in the photo - push them further through before glueing.)

Students assemble their anemometer by pushing the cup skewers into the foam in a circle. Three or four cups work, but younger students may have an easier time spacing out four (one on each side of the foam piece). Ideally the cups are all facing the same direction - help younger students to assemble, and allow older students to experiment with cup placement.
Insert a skewer (with no cup attached) into the hole that the pen cap/tube makes in the foam.

Blow into the cups to turn.

Try experimenting with different numbers of cups, and different strength of breath.

A weather station anemometer has metal cups which are weather-proof. The speed of the spinning cups is recorded as wind speed.

Ahead of the lesson: print simple contour maps on half sheets of paper (see attached file). Each one is a little different e.g. some have steeper slopes; for capable students include river valleys (E1 and E2 on attached file). Make a duplicate copy of each contour map.

With students, look at a topographic map that shows the height of land in different colours, either on a large paper map, or projected
e.g. North Shore mountains of Vancouver
e.g. this map of Hawaii: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawaii_Island_topographic_map-f…
On Hawaii map: ask students how many mountains there are on the map (two or four).
On any map with colours: point out the colour changes as the height changes.
On any map: Then point out the lines - these are called contours and show where the land gets higher. The colours are not needed with these 'contour lines'.
Then optionally look at a map that shows only the contours, lacking colour changes with height e.g. this map of North Vancouver and nearby Islands: http://www.canmaps.com/topomaps/nts50/toporama/images/092g06.gif
Show them the contours and tell students that they show how high the land is. Their spacing tells us how steep or gentle a slope is, and where there are river valleys and plateaus.

Tell students they will make their own model of a mountain from a simple contour map.
Demonstrate the activity, before students run it themselves (pairs work well):
Cut out a contour map around its outer edge, while the other student rolls out about half of the play dough to about 1cm thick, or until it is large enough to fit the contour map on it.
Lay the cut piece (showing the shape of the lowest level of the contour map) on the play dough and use the knife to cut out the shape. Lay the shape to one side of the mat.
Now, cut out around the next smallest contour line, and roll out a new piece of play dough (students can switch roles). Lay the (now smaller) contour map on the new rolled-out play dough and cut out the (new) shape. Lay the new play dough shape over the first one, using the duplicate contour map, to show where to lay the second layer over the first layer.
Repeat with the following contour lines, cutting out their shapes in play dough, and using the un-cut contour map to show how to align the layers on the growing mountain.

(For older students, more complex mountains with two peaks can be made.) If there is any doubt how to align one layer on the next, use a toothpick to help:
Before picking up the first paper contour cut-out, stick a toothpick through the paper and into the play dough in several places. When subsequent layers are made, push the toothpick through the same holes in the paper into the rolled-out play dough before removing the paper. The toothpick holes in the play dough can be aligned to place each layer in its proper position.

Once their mountains is made, students can cut their duplicate contour map along the outer contour line only, then bring their mountain and duplicate contour map to the tarp, where they are placed for display on separate halves of the tarp. As new mountains are added, place them next to the previous ones, and place the corresponding contour maps in equivalent positions in their own area. The growing landscape of model mountains will be reflected in the growing contour map assembly next to it.
(As students understand the relationship between the growing mountain landscape and the adjacent contour map, they can help direct where to place the contour maps correctly.)

As a class, look at the landscape and the contour maps. Refer back and forth while discussing and highlighting these features of a contour map:
The mountains look like islands in the ocean (the tarp is the ocean water).
Where are the steep slopes and the gentle slopes on the play dough mountains? Look at the contour maps to see what the lines do [lines are close together on steep slopes and far apart on gentle slopes].
Optional (and with warning to students that their creations will be modified): smooth out the sides of each mountain, so they look more like real mountains, commenting that the lines show the heights, but real mountains don't go up in steps.
Ask students to find valleys on the play dough mountains, which rivers might run down. Then show the same valleys on their contour maps - the contour lines have a distinctive shape, curving up and back, in a valley. Show them river valleys on a real map/the projected map (which likely also has a blue river line).
Refer back and forth between the landscapes while discussing and highlighting landforms that the students know about (e.g. mountains, hills, plateaus, valleys, deltas).

As a class, look back at a real contour map (preferably in an area that students are familiar with e.g. the same Cypress mountain map with the Sea-to Sky highway) and try to read the mountains: the steep slopes, the gentle slopes, the narrow river valleys (formed by water) and wide river valleys (formed by glaciers).

Optional and advanced: Students modify their mountains, then make a new contour map of their new mountain (not tested with a class).