Tree rings and growth rings become evidence students can interpret in this Grade 6 Science learning stations activity. Students examine real-world cases to explore how annual growth rings reveal tree age, changing growing conditions, environmental disturbances, and clues about past environments.

Read the Evidence Hidden in Trees

Rather than treating tree rings only as a way to count years, this activity develops the connection between ring patterns and environmental history. Students work with station case studies involving evidence associated with drought, fire, insects, flooding, and long-term climate patterns. They consider how these conditions can affect tree growth and what scientists can infer from the resulting record.

The activity also introduces an important idea in dendrochronology: scientists can compare and match ring patterns from multiple trees to reconstruct environmental conditions from the past. This gives students a concrete example of how biological evidence can help scientists investigate changes over time.

What Students Do

• Read case-study information presented on station cards
• Record key information on a station recording sheet
• Explain what growth rings can reveal about age and growing conditions
• Compare evidence linked to different environmental disturbances
• Complete a station wrap-up that brings the cases together

What You Receive

• Five station case-study cards
• Student station recording sheet
• Station wrap-up activity
• Teacher guide included in the Answer Key PDF

The teacher guide provides learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes, giving you support for introducing the activity and leading the class discussion afterward.

Built for Classroom Rotation

Place the case-study cards at stations around the room and have small groups rotate between them while recording their observations on their own sheets. After the rotations, use the wrap-up and teacher discussion prompts to compare cases and connect individual tree responses with broader environmental patterns.

This Alberta Grade 6 Trees and Forests resource works well when teaching growth rings, environmental change, forest science, or how scientists use evidence to reconstruct past conditions. It gives students a focused way to move from observing tree-ring evidence to explaining what that evidence can tell us about a tree and its environment.