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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 5 |
| Time required | Short (several days) |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Material Availability | Readily available |
| Cost | Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety | No issues |
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Sponsor
| Sponsored by a generous grant from Monsanto Fund |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
Trees grow more during the early spring than they do the rest of the year. Because of this period of dormancy, or lack of growth, each year of growth is marked by a line called a tree ring. You can count the number of rings in the cross section of a tree trunk to show how old the tree is. You can also count the number of rings in a stem to see the age of a stem or branch. One way to measure the rate of growth of a tree is to count the number of rings per inch. Trees with high numbers of rings grow very slowly, depositing many tree rings in a small amount of space with little growth in between. Trees with low numbers of rings grow rapidly, with fewer numbers of rings with rapid growth in between. You can often see growth rings at the ends of lumber. Try measuring the rate of growth for different types of lumber from different tree species. Which species of tree grow the fastest? The slowest? What does this mean for the sustainability of lumber as a building material? Which lumber is best to use for the environment? (Gardner & Webster, 1987, 36–39)Bibliography
Gardner, R. and Webster, D. 1987. Science in Your Backyard. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Plant Biology Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2008-11-11 12:20:36
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