Investigate with Jam Blog

Jam investigates the Oak tree

10/11/2016

Happy autumn! There is no better time to look at leaves then when they are all over the ground. The Investigate With Jam ™ crew adventured out on another tree hunt. This time we searched for Oak trees. I printed off five differently types of Oak tree leaves for the boys to use as a guide.

I picked different Oak trees that could be found in our area. Pin Oaks and Red Oaks are common street trees, and Willow Oaks and Swamp White Oaks like to be around wet areas. Since we live off a road and in walking distance to a stream I figured we had a good chance of finding something.

As the boys picked leaves we compared them to the pictures. I pointed out the leaf type, shape, and margin as guide for comparison. (If you don’t remember some leaf vocabulary can be found in case study #4- leaves)

I think Kal had the most fun on the hunt. With every step we took his head was focused on the sidewalk looking for leaves. When he would find a leaf I would tell him to bring it to us so we could compare it to the pictures. 9 times out of 10 he just look at his leaf and say “Not the one” then throw it over his shoulder.

Interesting, out of all the places we walked and looked we ended up finding 3 of the Oak trees planted along road to a softball field. Trust me no one was more excited than Kal.

We would have continued our hunt for the other two trees but with a playground near the softball field my team got distracted.

Activity

Join the search and find an Oak tree.

Case Study #12 - use these leaf pictures as a guide. Circle the leaves you find.
Reference Case Study #4 to help you describe your leaf.

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Garden Center

5/30/2016

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This investigation is taken straight from our Come Plant a Seed book launch. We held the book launch at Behnke Nurseries Garden Center in Beltsville, Maryland. This was a perfect opportunity to see plants in different growth stages along with other fun garden items so we did a scavenger hunt. It rained sporadically throughout the launch day so I know this activity will work in any weather.

Activity

Visit a garden center. Look at the different sizes of plants and guess how long it took for it to grow.

Case study #10: Go on a scavenger hunt. Attached is 2 scavenger hunts. The first hunt is specifically for Behnke Nurseries. Use the second hunt for any other garden center if you are not in the Baltimore Washington area.

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Jam investigates the London Plane Tree

8/10/2015

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In our last blog we investigated different types of leaves. In this blog Jam tried to put that knowledge to use. We went on the hunt for one of my favorite trees, the camouflage tree (aka London Plane- Platanus x acerifolia if you want to get technical). We talked about the tree’s cool peeling bark and its leaf structure. The London Plane tree is a common street tree in our area so I knew we simply had to hop in the car and drive around to find it. I had a particular place in mind to go, but on the way guess what we spotted from the car- the camo tree!!! We were simply a few blocks away from our house. We parked in the neighborhood and counted the trees, a total of 10.

So what do you do when you find the camo tree? You take a tree selfie. Now whenever we drive past a London Plane tree Jam yells in excitement “I see the tree mom. There it is!”

Activity

Find the London Plane tree.

Download Case study #5 for tree facts and clues. Tag us on Instagram with your tree selfie or hashtag #IWJFun.

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Jam investigates a leaf

7/24/2015

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There are many ways to describe a leaf. The most common ways are to describe the type, arrangement, shape, margin, and venation. There are two types of leaves; simple and compound. Compound leafs are divided into leaflets and a simple leaf has a single blade. Leaf arrangements describe how the leaf is positioned on its stem. The leaf shape defines the overall shape (surprised?). The leaf margin is the shape of the leaf edges, and the leaf venation describes the pattern of the veins.

Jam went on a nature walk through his neighborhood. He tried to describe some of the leaves on the trees he passed. He described colors and sizes, but his favorite was the “star shape leaf”.