Project Learning Tree
What is PLT?
PLT is an award-winning international education curriculum designed to help students and educators acquire an awareness and knowledge of the natural world. It is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad. More than 500,000 educators have been trained to use PLT materials, reaching more than 25 million students in the United States, the Trust Territories, Canada, Chile, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Philippines, Brazil and Mexico.
PLT teaches students how to think, not what to think. PLT is administered nationally by the American Forest Foundation with the Council for Environmental Education.
The Elementary school curriculum (preK-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.
Four high school modules are available on Forest Issues, Forest Ecology, Solid Waste, and Assessing Risk. Spanish translations of the Activity Guide are also available.
Check out the national PLT website ( http://www.plt.org/ ) for more interesting information about Project Learning Tree.
Sponsors
In New York State, PLT is cosponsored by the NYS Department of Conservation (DEC) and the NYS Education Department.
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. Check the current educator workshop schedule to see where and when the next PLT workshop will be held.
For information on PLT workshops contact the NYS PLT Coordinator:
Tom Shimalla
NYSDEC
625 Broadway, 2nd Flr
Albany, NY 12233-4500
518-402-8043
