Bay of Life: From Wind to Whales Lesson Plan (English) | Santa Cruz MAH Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

Redwoods in the BAY OF LIFE: From Wind to Whales

Redwoods, Molino Creek, photo by Frans Lanting

Redwoods in the BAY OF LIFE: From Wind to Whales

Made by Educational Programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. This lesson plan was made possible with support from The Humanities Institute (THI) at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Thanks to THI the MAH was granted a fellow, Sara Sotelo, who helped in the development of this lesson plan.

Background

The California redwoods are a very unique part of the history of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. With support from the BAY OF LIFE: Wind to Whales exhibition and MAH’s History Collection, this lesson plan will explore the story of these all-important trees. Learn about the life and challenges of these one-of-a-kind trees in a hands-on activity where participants recreate a tree ring.

Objectives

Participants will be:

• Introduced to the individuals who created an exhibition about Monterey Bay.

• Learn about the significance and history of the redwoods by reading about the impact of human interactions.

• Make a connection to the reading material by making an example of a redwood tree ring while writing a story.

Grade

3rd-5th Grade

Suggested CA Learning Standards

History/Social Science: 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 4.4, 5.2, & 5.8

Photo by Frans Lanting

Prep & Materials

To begin this project, we recommend you follow these steps to familiarize yourself with the lesson plan. As you check out the suggested resources, write down any thoughts you would like to share once you lead the lesson. You can also formulate discussions and questions you would like to focus on. We recommend following these steps but adjusting accordingly to your class or group.

Step 1

Read this lesson plan, including the reading pages.

Step 2

Browse the exhibit BAY OF LIFE: From Wind to Whales. You can also watch videos that provide more information about the Bay of Life project.

Step 3

Gather the materials needed for the art activity. We recommend you make an example ahead of time so you can share it.

Step 4

Once you feel ready, you can begin the lesson plan with the instructions on the following page.

Suggested Materials

Tree Ring Cookie Activity

Pencil

Redwood

Tree Ring Samples

Clearing Storm, Santa Cruz Mountains, photo by Frans Lanting

Instructions

For this lesson plan, we recommend following these steps.

2

Introduce the exhibit to your group. Provide information about the artist and show them the website and videos. Afterward, you can ask the following questions.

Ask: What do you think about the title of this exhibit, BAY OF LIFE: From Wind to Whales?

Ask: Why do you think the artist picked this title?

Ask: What things do you know about California and the Pacific Ocean?

1 4 3

After some discussion, assign the reading pages. We have some suggested questions to go along with the reading material. These can be assigned questions that participants write answers for and later turn in. Alternatively, you can answer them out loud as a group.

After the reading and questions, ask if anyone has any thoughts or feedback. Next, move on to the final step.

After drawing their tree ring, each person will write a short story about the life they believe the tree lived. Each tree ring cookie will tell a different story about the redwoods that grow in Santa Cruz. They tell the history of this land and people's use, or misuse, of it.

Hands On Activity

Time to get started! This activity encourages participants to use their observational skills to recreate the different stages redwood trees have undergone during the different periods discussed in the reading material. We have included a template for this activity but feel free to use a white piece of paper and recreate your own. Follow these steps and adjust as necessary.

Step 1

Begin this activity with a quick ice-breaker. Ask participants to guess how tall a redwood tree can grow. You can also ask them how wide a redwood tree can be. Have one person guess and you can either tell the group or class to guess higher or lower.

Answer: Redwood trees can grow up to 370 feet and can have a width of 22 feet at the base.

Step2

Review the different types of redwood tree ring samples. Discuss how they are different and similar. The different types of tree rings include fire damage, competition for resources, long growth, and slope growth.

Ask: What do you notice about each image?

Step 3

Have participants pick out which tree ring cookie they would like to draw. Have each person draw their tree ring cookie on the top of the template.

Step 4

After drawing their tree ring, each person will write a short story about the life they believe the tree lived. Read our sample out loud to help with this step. Each tree ring cookie will tell a different story about the redwoods that grow in Santa Cruz. They tell the history of this land and people's use, or misuse, of it.

You have just learned about the history of the redwoods and also how photography can help us appreciate our environment. Moreover, we also learned how the actions of humans can have a big impact on the land we live in.

Tree Ring Cookie Activity

Pick a tree ring from the samples and draw your version in this section.

Write about the life of your tree. What sort of life did the tree have?

Were there any major events that changed the growth of the tree? Tell us.

“We know of no other place in the world where land and sea connect in such an extraordinary way.”

Meet Frans and Chris

Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom both deeply love the Monterey Bay area. They used to work for an outdoor science and nature magazine called National Geographic. Together they travel the world taking pictures of nature but Monterey Bay will always be their home.

After the wildfires of 2020 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Frans and Chris set out on a new project. They wanted to photograph the beauty of the bay, from the sea to the mountains. This project later became a book and then an exhibition, also known as an art show, at the Museum of Art & History (MAH) in 2023.

A hardcover version of the Bay of Life (2022) book by Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom holds 240 pages of beautiful pictures of wildlife and nature.

Discussion Questions

• If you were a world photographer, what would you photograph?

• What do you think the life of a world photographer is like? Would it be exciting, why or why not?

• Why do you think Chris and Frans wanted to make their book into an exhibition?

–Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom

Indigenous People and the Redwoods

The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, referred to by the “Ohlone,” are the indigenous peoples of south-San Francisco and north-Monterey Bay. Redwoods were believed to be Spirit Beings that showed indigenous peoples how to live here. For this reason, redwoods were sacred and respected.

Villages would make planks out of fallen redwoods to build their houses. They also used washed-up redwoods on beaches to make canoes. Plank houses and canoes are no longer here today. However, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band cares for the land just like their ancestors did.

Discussion Questions

• How do you think nature can teach us how to live in an environment?

• What do you think happens when people use more resources than they need?

• How can we care for the land we live in so that future generations can live here too?

Redwood Plank House, National Park Service

Painted handprints pattern the walls of a secluded cave where Esselen people once gathered for sacred ceremonies.

The Gold Rush and Deforestation

In his fourth annual address to the U.S. Congress on December 5, 1848, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in California…Aspiring miners "rushed" to California, causing the state's population to increase by more than 300 percent between 1850 and 1860. - The US Census Bureau

People from all over the world rushed to California once gold* was discovered. To keep up, redwood trees were getting cut down rapidly to build for a growing population. This growth led to the deforestation of redwood forests as lumber became a large business. In the Santa Cruz area, about 34 million board feet of lumber were cut per year. Even during this time of extreme deforestation, there were still conservation efforts. Many newspapers called for the new State of California to do something about how many redwoods were cut down. Many people called for the forming of state parks or just land designated specifically not to be logged on.

Discussion Questions

• What is deforestation and how does it change an environment?

• What makes people move to new places? What would make you move to a new place?

• Why would people want to cut down a lot of trees?

Did you know?

The California Gold Rush was a large wave of people that came to California in search of gold after it was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848.

A lumber mill in the mid-1800s. The lumber here was used to build houses for the booming population and to rebuild homes after the San Francisco earthquake. Courtesy History San Jose.

The train dumped lumber into the mill pond. Engine lettering was added by the photographer. Photo by Fred Stoes.

Discussion Questions

• Why would people want to preserve the redwoods?

• What is important about making sure the redwoods are preserved?

• What more can we be doing to build up the redwood population?

Regrowing the Redwoods

On August 16, 2020, Santa Cruz had a wildfire that burned 86,509 acres over 37 days, including many redwoods. Today, many people are working to regrow the redwoods to their full beauty. New and old redwoods are under protection by California State Parks. Efforts to heal Monterey Bay as a whole are happening all over! New redwoods are being planted where old ones were burned down.

Burning redwoods isn’t always a bad thing. Indigenous land stewardship, which is when the land is given back to Natives to take care of, calls for controlled burns. These burns make sure hazardous materials are not building up and natural life can take over.

Did you know?

Young redwoods can grow to 100 or 150 feet in height in 50 years. In open stands, they can grow more than an inch in diameter per year. In other words, if there is more space and less competition, their trunks can get very wide.

• Sprouts grow more quickly than seedlings, sometimes achieving heights of seven feet in a single growing season.

• University of California, Agriculture, and Natural Resources website.

Strong winds whipped a fire started by lightning into an inferno that engulfed Big Basin. It burned almost the entire park and many other places in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Tree sprouting in a grove of fire-blackened redwoods visualizes the resilience of nature.

Wildfire and Redwood Sprout, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Photo by Frans Lanting

Firestorm, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, photo by Frans Lanting

Continue the Learning

The Museum of Art & History (MAH) thanks you for using our online resources to continue learning from home or school.

If you would like to learn more about the history of the redwoods, the MAH published a book called A Split History (History Journal #7). Available to purchase online or pick it up at the MAH.

Want to visit the MAH for free?

Send us a few pictures of the handson activity with a few sentences to education@santacruzmah.org. We will send you museum passes for your class or your group!