Project Learning Tree

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Project Learning Tree


Definitions Project Fort Collins January 5-6,
2006 Kathy McGlauflin







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What is PLT?

• A Comprehensive Environmental
• Education Program
• International Network
• Implementation
• PreK - 12 Curriculum

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PLT's Mission
PLT uses the forest as a "window on the world" to
increase students' understanding of our complex
environment stimulate critical and creative
thinking develop the ability to make informed
decisions on environmental issues and instill
the confidence and commitment to take responsible
action on them.
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Project Learning Tree Goals
Awareness
Knowledge
Challenge
Responsible Action
Teaching students how to think, not what to
think.
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PLT A Comprehensive EE Program

• Raises awareness and promotes critical thinking
  about the myriad links between people and the
  environment.
• Connects to all aspects of the environment
  natural and built.
• Engages educators in a long-term partnership.
• Helps students learn how to make sound decisions.

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PLT International Network

• All 50 states and the District of Columbia
• Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, Japan, Mexico,
  Philippines, Slovakia, Sweden, U.S. Trust
  Territories, The Peace Corps
• National PLT Office
• Education Operating Committee
• State Sponsors
• State Coordinators
• State Steering Committee
• Facilitators
• Teachers

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Implementation
During the average business day, a PLT workshop
begins every hour. More than half the teachers
who attend use PLT in their classes at least six
times a year.

• Distribution
• Professional development or Training based
• Built on train the trainer model, creating
  cadre of facilitators
• Extends PLTs in-place 51-state network

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PLT Curriculum

• PLT PreK-8
• PLT Secondary Modules
• PLT Energy Society

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PreK-8 Guide

• Interdisciplinary
• Thematic/Conceptual
• Framework
• Use of storylines
• Classroom friendly
• Aligned to National and
• State Curriculum Standards
• PreK-8 Guide Revisions
• - Reading Connections
• Technology Connections
• Differentiated Instruction
• New Design

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Secondary Modules

• Modules Include
• The Changing Forest Forest Ecology
• Exploring Environmental Issues Focus on Forests
• Exploring Environmental Issues Focus on Risk
• Exploring Environmental Issues Municipal Solid
  Waste
• Exploring Environmental Issues In the Places We
  Live
• Each Contains
• Background Information
• Activities
• Appendices

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Exploring Environmental Issues in The Places We
Live

• Goals
• Provide students with opportunities for community
  investigations that focus on environmental,
  social, and economic issues.
• Help students strengthen their sense of place and
  develop an awareness of how their choices impact
  the environment.

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Exploring Environmental Issues in The Places We
Live

• Activities
• Personal Places
• In this activity, students investigate and
  report on their connection with a special place
  and with their greater community.
• 2. Community Character
• In this activity, students explore community
  character
• and investigate ways their communities,
  including their
• own, are responding to growth and development
  pressures.
• 3. Mapping Your Community Through Time
• In this activity, student teams investigate the
  social,
• cultural, economic, aesthetic, and
  environmental
• components of their community to create map
  overlays
• and reports describing the development of their
  community through time.
• 4. Neighborhood Design
• In this activity, students explore the current
  layout of their neighborhood, critically
  evaluate a variety of development options, and
  formulate ideas for guiding further growth in
  their community.

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Exploring Environmental Issues in The Places We
Live

• Activities
• 5. Green Space
• In this activity, students investigate green
  infrastructure at the neighborhood, community,
  and regional scale and explore the dual needs to
  accommodate population growth and protect green
  space.
• 6. A Vision For the Future
• In this activity, student teams develop and
  present a vision for the future of an area in
  their community.
• 7. Far Reaching Decisions
• In this activity, students develop a creative
  presentation to exhibit how our decisions as
  individuals can impact distant communities.
• 8. Regional Community Issues Whose Water Is It?
  The Ogallala Aquifer
• In this activity, students adopt the roles of
  stakeholders and debate solutions to sustain
  North Americas largest aquifer.

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PLTs Programs

• GreenWorks!
• EarthCare
• Urban Forestry Website
• Targeted initiatives
• Urban, Early childhood
• Energy education
• Fire education
• Professional development models

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What Teachers Are Saying

• Easily incorporated into existing curriculum
• Provides for differentiated
• instruction
• Cross-curricula
• Hands-on, minds-on
• Correlated to education
• standards
• In line with education reform

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PLT Works ...

• Up to 30,000 educators a year
• Half of users report using PLT at least once a
  month
• Many national awards
• Top marks from California Department of Education
• 60 percent come to workshops because another
  educator told them about PLT