The tree project was an outgrowth of children’s questions regarding the changing colors of the tree on their playground. It provided an excellent opportunity for children to engage in scientific inquiry related to what is now the life science content standard. As part of their desire to build a lifelike model of a tree, the children encountered problems that led to their discovery of two important components of real trees. First, they realized that trees need roots, in part to provide support. Later they learned that trees have a solid core. Because children developed these concepts through solving a real-life problem, they are more likely to remember what they learned. While this project primarily revolved around science explorations, it also contained important elements of mathematics, technology, and engineering, which are documented in figure 5.10.