In order to truly answer questions of hurricane frequency one must move past short-term human-documented meteorological records and find environmental proxies for determining historical hurricanes. Just recently, Miller et al. (2006) established such a proxy when they documented an oxygen isotope record from longleaf pine trees spanning 220 years. This article describes an inquiry-based activity for high school students based on this research. The activity integrates chemistry, biology, and Earth/environmental sciences while engaging students in problem-solving exercises and group collaborations.