TREE: Trans-Canadian Research Environmental Education

Did you know that by collecting a local tree and soil sample,
you can help scientists study how the trees can improve pollutions in different types of environments?

Students from across Canada are invited to be a part of the Trans-Canadian Research and Environmental Education (TREE) project: a national research program to study the environmental history of their own community. There are modules and activities designed to engage students in STEM and social studies with Indigenous perspectives. While originally written to connect with Grade 8 curriculums across Canada, extensions and detailed information is available to make TREE easily adaptable to connect with curriculum in Grades 6-12. Check out the website to see how TREE connects to curriculum. 

The CLS is proud to be to working in partnership with the Mistik Askiwin Dendrochronology Laboratory (MAD Lab) to help deliver the TREE program. The MAD Lab has created the tree-ring chronologies and using these, they are able to understand the climate history of various locations, date historical artifacts, and investigate how environmental contamination from humans has changed over time by using tree-ring data. With the TREE program, MAD Lab is investigating the adaptability of trembling aspens (Populus termuloides) to toxins in environments across Canada.

• Teacher reviews the available resources and lesson plans to determine where the material best fits their curriculum 
• Teacher determines when the best time to book the sample collection kit to fit their lesson plan for this project
• Teacher completes the registration form 
• CLS Education team member contacts teacher and a TREE kit is booked
• Class is sent a kit with tools for sample collection
• Students research events in their community and create a timeline
• Students collect samples from trembling aspen and nearby soil within their community
• Samples are sent to the CLS and the MAD Lab for data analysis
• Data is sent back to students
• Students analyze their data and compare their results with other classes across Canada
• Data that has already been collected