Urban Guide Lesson 2: Urban Forests and Public Health

Provided by: Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education |Published on: July 16, 2026

Lesson Plans

9101112AP

Scientist Reviewed ↗

Synopsis

This 120-minute lesson has students read a scientific paper about the physical and mental health benefits of urban forests and the 3-30-300 rule, then examine the Tree Equity Score of an urban community.
Students conduct a tree inventory of their local urban forest, recording species and diameter data, and review Wisconsin DNR recommendations for planting urban trees in a changing climate.

Related Teaching Resources

Subjects: Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, Geography

Authors: LEAF Wisconsin K-12 Forestry Education

Region: Wisconsin

Languages: English

View Resource

Teaching Materials

Preparation:

The tree inventory activity requires advance scouting of plots with at least ten public trees each near the school.
Arrange extra adult supervisors for this outdoor activity if you plan on sending multiple small groups to different plots simultaneously.
The inventory also requires DBH tapes (or flexible sewing tapes) and copies of the Wisconsin Urban Tree Key for each group.

Classroom Implementation:

This is the second of four LEAF 9-12 Urban Forest Lessons; it builds on the economics lesson but can also be taught on its own.
Build in time and structure for the whole-class share-out after the tree inventory (step 5 of Activity 2) since students need each other's plot data to answer the synthesis questions.
Have students pace the "300 meters" in the 3-30-300 rule so the metric scale is concrete.

Differentiation:

For the culminating assessment, scaffold the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning response by having students first collect evidence from their inventory data and the assigned article before drafting.
Additionally, provide sentence stems to help develop scientific writing.
Challenge advanced groups to calculate their measured plot's actual percent composition by family/genus/species and evaluate it against the 20-10-5 rule numerically, rather than just qualitatively.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

Scientist Reviewed

This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.

Learn about our review process →

Related Teaching Resources

All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.

Cookie Preferences

Urban Guide Lesson 2: Urban Forests and Public Health

Synopsis

Teaching Materials

Scientist Reviewed

Related Teaching Resources