Project Learning Tree

What is PLT?

Project Learning Tree® is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in Pre K-grade 12. PLT, a program of the American Forest Foundation, is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad. PLT continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence.

PLT teaches students how to think, not what to think, about the environment. PLT meets state and national education standards. The curriculum materials provide the tools educators need to bring the environment into the classroom and their students into the environment. Topics range from forests, wildlife, and water, to community planning, waste management and energy.

PLT is a network of 3,000 grassroots volunteers and over 120 state coordinators that work with formal and nonformal educators, school staff, state agencies, foresters, businesses, civic organizations, museums, nature centers, and youth groups to provide professional development programs. To date, more than 500,000 educators are trained in using PLT materials, reaching approximately 26 million students in the United States and abroad.

Correlations

The Elementary school curriculum (pre K-8) takes an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to learning and contains more than 90 different lesson plans. In addition to teaching about science, trees, and forestry, PLT can be used to teach language arts, social studies, nutrition, mathematics, visual arts, and more. The PLT curriculum is correlated with the NYS Science Core Curriculum and NYS Social Studies Core Curriculum at www.plt.org/cms/test/21_21_202.html.

Secondary Modules

Secondary modules are available, including Intro Handbook for Secondary Modules (online); Exploring Environmental Issues: Biodiversity (online); Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Forest (print); The Changing Forest: Forest Ecology (print); Exploring Environmental Issues: Municipal Solid Waste (print); Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Risk (print); Exploding Environmental Issues: Places We Live (NEW!! print); and the brand new in 2008, Global Connections: Forests of the World (prnt). A biotechnology supplement for the Focus on Risk module is in development.

Check out the national PLT website (listed in the right column of this page) for more interesting information about Project Learning Tree. The National site also has resources for most of the activities in the Pre K-8 Guide and the secondary modules. Also, all the student pages for every activity in every guide are available on the National site.

Workshops

To obtain the PLT curriculum, you must attend a six hour workshop. Workshops are offered periodically throughout the state and are facilitated by both a forester and an educator. The workshops are FREE, or for a nominal fee. Check the current educator workshop schedule to see where and when the next PLT workshop will be held.

For information on PLT, contact the NYS PLT Coordinator:

Tom Shimalla
NYSDEC
625 Broadway, 2nd Floor
Albany, NY 12233-4500
518-402-8043
plt@gw.dec.state.ny.us