Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for teachers and other educators, parents, and community leaders working with youth from preschool through grade 12.
PLT- PreK-8 Guide
PLT’s state of the art PreK-8 curriculum materials are packed with inter-disciplinary activities, each tailored to specific grade levels and learning objectives. These materials provide educators the tools they need to bring the environment into their classrooms – and their students into the environment.
PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide
• 96 interdisciplinary activities grouped by theme and storyline
• Activities incorporate reading connections, technology connections, differentiated instruction, and assessment strategies
• Most activities require few special supplies or extra preparation
• All activities include up-to-date student resources and reproducible student pages, background information for educators, easy-to-follow instructions, and additional online resources
• Activities are correlated to national and most state learning standard
The Changing Forest: Forest Ecology
In The Changing Forest: Forest Ecology module, students examine ecological systems of a forest; analyze interdependencies within a forest ecosystem; and explore factors, like fire, that shape the development of forests. In addition, they develop critical thinking skills and discover the importance of scientific analysis when making decisions about forest issues.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Forests
Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Forests module uses forest related examples to help students better understand the complexity of environmental issues. Students examine issues objectively, collect and analyze data, and become involved in decision making experiences. They learn how to present arguments clearly and how citizens can play a role in forest management decisions.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Municipal Solid Waste
Through the Exploring Environmental Issues: Municipal Solid Waste module, students begin understanding waste management issues and options. The module uses hands-on experiences to show the interrelationships among waste generation, natural resource use, and disposal. The activities guide students through waste management strategies and solutions while providing the necessary tools to make informed decisions and choices on waste management issues.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Risk
Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Risk module helps students explore the different aspects of environmental and human health risks that affect their everyday lives. It incorporates science, social studies, math, geography, and language arts. The module is designed to be infused into existing curriculum and is correlated to the national science standards.
Through eight hands-on activities, students analyze, explore, discover, and learn about risk assessment, risk communication, risk perception, and risk management. In addition, there are three special topics that encourage students to apply the knowledge they develop from the activities to actual risk issues. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making are stressed throughout the activities.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live
All communities – urban, suburban, small town, rural – are experiencing growth and change, which has an impact on each community's environment.
PLT's module, Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live, provides educators with a useful tool for place-based education to help create a bond between young citizens and their communities. Students will explore current and future community environmental issues, enabling them to make informed decisions about those issues.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Biodiversity
This secondary module uses biodiversity as a window through which secondary students investigate the environment. It permits educators and students to step back from specific issues and species and to examine broader concepts and larger connections—not just biological, but political, cultural, ethical, and economic as well. Students will learn that decisions about growth and development, about energy use and water quality, even about health, all rest to some extent on perspectives about biodiversity.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Biodiversity was developed by Project Learning Tree (PLT) in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Educators are permitted to download, print, and use any of the following online materials
Global Connections: Forests of the World
Developed by Project Learning Tree and the World Forestry Center Forests of the World provides formal and nonformal educators with a series of activities to help students and educators gain an increased understanding and appreciation of the diversity of world forest environments, with an emphasis on the human interaction with and dependence on those environments. The module activities provide students with opportunities to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills while investigating world forestry issues and conducting service learning action projects.
Energy and Society
PLT's Energy & Society Program
PLT's Energy & Society program kit provides formal and nonformal educators with tools and activities to help students in grades PreK-8 learn about their relationship with energy and investigate the environmental issues related to energy's role in society.
Energy & Society helps students develop critical thinking skills to make decisions about their personal energy use. In addition to hands-on activities, Energy & Society integrates music and dance to enhance the study of energy issues.
An Energy & Society Activity Guide
* A background section for educators.
* An outline of how to use the Energy & Society materials with students
* Correlations to national standards in science, social studies, and English language arts
* A student energy primer
* A collection of six activities that educators can use with the Where is the energy? and What powers the move? posters
* Ideas for action projects and science fair projects
* Energy-related case studies
* A list of energy-related children's literature and other resources
* Lyrics to the songs on the Billy B compact disc
* A glossary
Biotechnology
A new supplement to the Risk module this curriculum goes over artificial selection and the process of creating Genetically modified Organisms. Then students explore how these technologies are used and the issues surrounding this technology.