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Project Learning Tree
Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for teachers and other educators, parents, and community leaders working with youth from pre-school through 12th grade.
Project Learning Tree
PLT enhances existing curricula by using the forest as a “window on the world” to increase students’ understanding of our complex environment, to stimulate critical and creative thinking, to develop the ability to make informed decisions on environmental issues, and to instill the confidence and commitment to take responsible action on behalf of the environment.
PLT helps students learn how to think, not what to think, about the environment.
Project Learning Tree
PLT was founded in 1973 and was designed to be a supplementary curriculum program using hands-on, activity based learning. The program is implemented through a trained volunteer network that operates in all 50 states. To date, there are over 500,000 trained educators for PLT. The program is also international with programs being available in the U.S. Territories, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil.
Project Learning Tree
Goals• Provide students with the awareness, appreciation,
understanding, skills and commitment to address environmental issues.
• Enable students to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills to resolve environmental problems.
• Help students acquire an appreciation and tolerance of diverse viewpoints on environmental issues, and develop attitudes and actions based on analysis and evaluation of the available information.
• Encourage creativity, originality and flexibility to resolve environmental problems and issues.
• Inspire and empower students to become responsible, productive and participatory members of society.
Project Learning Tree
PLT meets state and national education standards. The interdisciplinary curriculum materials provide the tools educators need to bring the environment into the classroom and their students into the environment. This is not a “Tree” program but covers all aspects of the environment. Topics range from forests, wildlife, and water, to community planning, waste management and energy conservation.
Project Learning Tree
Environmental Education Stages of Learning
SOLUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS
AWARENESS
(appreciation)
KNOWLEDGE
(understanding)
ATTITUDE(values & feelings)
SKILL(identify
problems)
PARTICIPATION
(acquire experience
and take action)
Project Learning Tree
PLT can be used in a variety of contexts, from rural to urban and can also be used in formal and non-formal settings. PLT has a reputation for both balance and breadth of the information on topics covered. Students construct new knowledge by combining previous knowledge with new discoveries. Educators guide students toward new conceptual understanding through critical thinking and creative problem solving.
Project Learning Tree
A Highly Effective Delivery Network for Information and Education
Project Learning Tree
PLT offers Secondary modules for Jr. & Sr. High School educators focusing on a variety of topics. These materials are also correlated to state and national education frameworks.
Project Learning Tree
PLT also offers curriculum for Early Childhood Learners from ages 3-6
Project Learning Tree
The PLT Activity Guide is broken up into Five Themes that the different activities relate to:
1. Diversity
2. Interrelationships
3. Systems
4. Structure and Scale
5. Patterns of Change
Project Learning Tree
Each PLT activity has the same overall format and appearance in the Activity Guide. Each activity will include:
• Title
• Overview
• Sidebar
• Objectives
• Assessment Opportunities
• Background
• Getting Ready
• Doing the Activity
• Variations
• Enrichment
• Reading Connections
Project Learning Tree
• Title: the “attention grabber” that relates to the activity’s content
• Overview: brief description of the activity• Sidebar: found on the first page of each activity and
contains the fooling information:• Level: indicates recommended grade levels for various
parts of the activity.
• Subjects: indicates the subjects that the activity incorporates (i.e. mathematics, science, social studies, etc.)
• Concepts: lists the concepts that the activity addresses
• Skills: lists the thinking processes and skills that the activity develops (i.e. reasoning, observing, etc.)
• Materials: lists the materials needed to do the activity
• Time Considerations: recommends time allotments for each part of the core activity, including preparation.
• Related activities: lists other PLT activities that
address closely related topics
Project Learning Tree
• Objectives: states the content objectives targeted in the activity
• Background: contains relevant information that provides the teacher with an understanding and perspective for engaging the class in the activity
• Assessment Opportunities: Guides the educator toward assessing students’ understanding of the concepts covered in the activity and provides opportunities for students to apply knowledge they have gained.
• Background: contains relevant information that provides the teacher with an
understanding and perspective for
engaging the class in the activity.• Getting Ready: describes how to prepare for
teaching the activity
Project Learning Tree
• Doing the Activity: provides step-by-step procedures for leading the activity
• Variations: provide alternative procedures for doing the activity having similar objectives to the core activity, but appeal to different age levels, learning styles, audiences, situations, or concerns
• Enrichment: contain recommendations for exercises that enrich or extend the learning experience in the activity
• Reading Connections: lists books
that are relevant to the activity
Project Learning Tree
National Sponsors
American Forest Foundation
Council for Environmental Education
Society of American Foresters
USDA Forest Service
National Association of State Foresters
National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges
National Association of Conservation
Districts
World Forestry Center
Project Learning Tree
For more information contact:
Erica Cox or Janice Greene
Missouri PLT State Co-Coordinators
Missouri State University
Department of Biology
901 S. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65897
417-836-4337,417-836-8886
www.plt.missouristate.edu
