What is PLT?
PLT Workshop Information
PLT Educational Materials
PLT Outreach Programs
PLT Educator of the Year
Nomination form for SCPLT Educator of the Year
PLT Correlatives to SCDE Curriculum Standards
How to Get Involved
Upcoming Workshops
PLT’s National Homepage
WHAT IS PROJECT LEARNING TREE?
Project Learning Tree (PLT) is an award-winning international environmental education program designed for teachers and informal educators who work with students from pre-kindergarten through high school.
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PLT uses the forest as a "window" into the natural world, helping young people gain an awareness and knowledge of the environment and their place within it.PLT supports education reform in its multi-disciplinary approach:
PLT activities are used across the curriculum and are designed to meet both national and state standards. In South Carolina, PLT is correlated to State Curriculum Standards in SCIENCE, MATH, LANGUAGE ARTS and SOCIAL STUDIES. PLT activities also support other disciplines such as the Visual and Performing Arts and even Physical Education. Nationally, PLT Activities are correlated to National Science Standards, National Social Studies Standards, and the Girl Scouts of America program.
SC PROJECT LEARNING TREE SPONSORS:
In South Carolina, PLT is sponsored by:
S.C. Forestry Commission
S.C. Forestry Foundation
S.C. Department of Education
Project Learning tree was first introduced to South Carolina by the S.C. Department of Education in 1981. In 1985 the day-to-day operations of SC PLT was handed over to the S.C. Forestry Commission. With its network of offices throughout the state, the Forestry Commission is an ideal delivery system, offering a unique partnership between education, state agencies, and private industry. SC PLT is a non-profit organization, supported by corporate donations and grants. This allows SC PLT to offer workshops and materials FREE to educators across the state. A Steering Committee (composed of a partnership of forestry professionals, educators, state agency representatives, and industry representatives) works closely with the state PLT Coordinator to select and prepare PLT workshop leaders and to promote sound environmental education in South Carolina. Over 200 volunteer facilitators are trained to conduct workshops throughout the state.
Since 1981, over 13,400 educators have participated in SC PLT workshops.
"USE THE ENVIRONMENT TO REACH NEW STANDARDS" WORKSHOPS
ARRANGE FOR A PROJECT LEARNING TREE WORKSHOP AT YOUR SCHOOL
How will PLT help my school?
- PLT is INEXPENSIVE: All workshops in South Carolina are FREE. Teachers who attend workshops receive a 406 page PreK-8 PLT Activity Guide with over 96 "Hands-on, Mind-on" activities FREE. All materials used in PLT activities are inexpensive household items easily found in local stores (paper plates, strings, etc.)
- PLT WORKS: The North American Association for Environmental Education evaluated 240 teachers and 5,000 students in the U.S. and Canada who used PLT over a period of 12 months and found that short term exposure to PLT produces positive, long term effects when it comes to improving environmental knowledge and attitudes. Researchers further concluded that PLT increases knowledge in surprisingly little time.In fact, the average knowledge growth for students in grades 2-8 who were exposed to PLT for two to three weeks was no less than the equivalent of seven months. * Further national research has concluded that using the environment as a multi-disciplinary medium increases student achievement, involvement, and lowers discipline problems. (*"Closing the Achievement Gap - Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning", 1998)
- PLT is MULTI-DISCIPLINARY: Although SCIENCE based, PLT activities are multi-disciplinary, using MATH, LANGUAGE ARTS, SOCIAL STUDIES, VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS. PLT materials are currently correlated to the SC Dept. of Education Curriculum Standards in all four major disciplines.
- PLT Activities teach "HOW TO THINK NOT WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT": PLT Activities reflect several methods of teaching environmental literacy and values. Each activity attempts to guide the learner through the process of awareness, understanding, challenge, motivation, and action using active involvement and hands-on experiences. The activities are based largely on constructivist learning theory and whole language teaching strategies, with heavy emphasis on processing skills incorporating problem solving skills, critical thinking skills and cooperative learning techniques. Just what you need to help prepare your students for the PACT testing.
- PLT materials are designed "For teachers - By teachers". ThePLT Activity Guides are designed with the teacher in mind. Each lesson is complete with adequate background material; an overview for quick reference; a sidebar with a listing of grade levels, subjects, concepts, skills, objectives, materials used and time considerations. The K-8 Activity has six easy to use indices for quick reference, along with other teacher friendly appendices. Each lesson has step-by-step instructions that are easily followed along with student pages for class work.
- PLT Curriculum is reformed oriented: Crafted to meet National Science and Social Studies Standards and state standards in Science, Social Studies, Math and Language Arts, PLT provides all the tools educators need to bring the environment into their classroom and the students into the environment. PLT Activities are designed to teach students how 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.
- What is a PLT workshop like? In South Carolina, PLT has over 200 trained volunteer professionals (educators, foresters, industry representatives, and other natural resource professionals) that work in teams throughout the state to conduct workshops. This unique mix of professional allows for the greatest exchange of knowledge and content expertise during the workshop. Many facilitators serve as contacts for schools well past the workshops. In South Carolina, over 13,400 educators have been trained in the use of PLT since 1981.
PLT workshops are six hours of FUN and EXCITEMENT!
- PreK-8 workshops: This six - hour workshop is designed to give adequate background information about PLT, the Activity Guides, and activities. Educators participate in a minimum of five activities from the book. All materials, including the 406-page Activity Guide, are FREE. A minimum of 15 participants is required to schedule a workshop.
- Secondary workshops: PLT offers a variety of shorter (two to four hour), more concentrated workshops for secondary teachers. Although structured for grades 9-12, PLT secondary module activities can easily be adapted to Middle or Junior High settings. Minimum of 15 participants required to schedule a workshop.
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How can I arrange a workshop for my staff?
For more information or to arrange a workshop for your school, contact:
Jerry Shrum - SC PLT Coordinator
PO Box 21707
Columbia, SC 29221
Phone (803) 896-8892
FAX (803) 896-8896
E-mail: jshrum@forestry.state.sc.us
PROJECT LEARNING TREE MATERIALS
PLT for PreK-8
The PLT PreK-8 Activity Guide is a 406-page guide packed with 96 multi-disciplinary activities - each carefully designed for specific grade levels and learning objectives. Each activity includes background and preparation instructions; materials and time requirements; suggested variations; assessment opportunities; and appropriate grade levels and subjects, skills and objectives for easy use in the classroom. Written "for teachers by teachers" the PreK-8 Activity Guide also includes many useful appendices and over six indices, making it easy to locate information and activities for any need.
Interested parties can receive the guide only by attending a six-hour PLT workshop. Workshops can easily be set up in your school, district, or recreational facility by contacting the state coordinator.
Project Learning Tree”s NEW ENERGY & SOCIETY Program
Project Learning Tree (PLT) has developed new instructional tools for educators of PreK-8th grade students that provide a creative, educational, and fun way to integrate energy conservation with science, social studies, language arts and the performing arts.
Energy& Society features lessons and activities that help youth learn about their relationship with energy while also investigating the environmental issues related to energy. The main feature of this program is the new Energy & Society kit, which includes an activity guide, a set of 16 classroom posters to use with the activities, a music CD and video - a complete multi-disciplinary program. The CD features 15 songs about energy written and performed by well-known children’s performing artist and songwriter Bill Brennan or "Billy B" as kids know him. The video features Billy B and youth dancers’ performing a creative version of selected songs featured on the CD and includes step-by-step dance instructions. Educators have the flexibility of using the music CD and dance video to enhance the learning experience in a fun, hands-on way.
The Energy & Society activity guide includes a section with background information for educators, a student primer with information about specific energy resources and web sites, and a listing of children’s books and videos connected to energy. The main feature of the activity guide is the six activities:
- "Energy Detectives"- Students learn about potential and kinetic energy, explore the classroom for energy connections and record their energy use throughout the day in an energy detective journal.
- "May the Source Be with You." - Students learn about renewable and nonrenewable resources, research one energy resource, and create a poster of their own that describes that resource.
- "Energy Chains," - students investigate the different forms of energy and the law of conservation of energy.
- "What Powers the Move?" - leads students in an examination of their community’s transportation systems and has them consider the changes in transportation over time. Using what they learn, students design a future transportation system for their community.
- "In the Driver’s Seat" - Students learn about gasoline, fuel conservation, and energy efficiency. Students choose a vehicle, explore the fuel economy of that vehicle, and participate in a simulation where they "drive" their chosen vehicle to and from school for a week.
- The final activity, " Energy Challenge Game," invites students to demonstrate what they have learned about energy by being contestants in a Jeopardy! like game.
Recognized for more than 25 years as a leader in environmental education, PLT materials help develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, teaching children and teens how to think, not what to think about our environment. To learn more about the new PLT Energy & Society program and workshops in your area, visit the national website at www.plt.org . To schedule a workshop in South Carolina, contact Jerry Shrum, PLT State Coordinator at (803)896-8892 or jshrum@forestry.state.sc.us .
Burning Issues: Fire Ecology Workshops
Explore fire’s historical role in the Southeastern forests ecosystem, have your students perform a prescribed fire by manipulating variables that control fire behavior, and learn about the plants and animals that depend on fire for their livelihood (including South Carolina’s endangered species like the red cockaded woodpecker). All of this and more is included in PLT’s latest initiative the "Burning Issues" Interactive CD.
What will we learn?
- How to use Project Learning Tree as a tool both in and out of the classroom
- Basic Fire Ecology and wildfire history of South Carolina and the Southeast
- How to make homes in the wildland urban interface safer from wildfire risk
- How to use the "Burning Issues" CD-ROM as a teaching tool, integrating technology into your classrooms
ABOUT THE "BURNING ISSUES CD"
The "Burning Issues" CD is an Interactive Multimedia Program that contains four sites that have EcoTours, panoramic views of natural ecosystems that support a variety of species. Each EcoTour contains 20 "hotspots" that link students to the interactive Resource Room where they can read about the natural history of an animal or plant and how it is affected by fire. "Burning Issues" lets students take an EcoTour of a southern pine ecosystem, visit the shrub-steppe ecosystem of Idaho, explore a ponderosa pine ecosystem in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and examine the chaparral in America’s Southwest. Student and Teacher Fired Notebooks are an integral part of this program.
Spark up your lesson plans with Hot Topics, Burning Issues and Sizzling Materials! Fire up student learning with both classroom and field activities!
Take home PLT materials, fire videos, Burning Issues CD-Rom, posters and lots of other information and materials. Sign up for a Fire Ecology workshop by contacting your state coordinator.
PLT for Secondary Teachers
Project Learning Tree has a variety of Secondary Modules designed to help meet the needs of teachers in grades 9-12. The Secondary Modules are designed to meet common components of national and state education reforms by using whole language teaching, cooperative learning, problem solving, and authentic assessments. The Modules are intended for grades 9-12 but can be adapted for other audiences (grades 6-8). Two to four hour workshops for these modules are available upon request. All workshops and materials are FREE. Secondary workshops are three-hours. Additional time is required if more than one module is covered during a workshop.
The Introductory Handbook for Secondary Modules
A valuable guide for educators that explains PLT’s mission, goals, methods, and conceptual framework. The handbook outlines the organization and design of the new secondary modules and highlights teaching techniques for topics such as teaching controversial issues and multicultural environmental education. More than 60 organizations are listed as contacts for additional information and materials. In addition, ten activities are included in the handbook.
Help teach students"HOW TO THINK NOT WHAT TO THINK!" |
Examine your schools for waste and recycling opportunities. |
Exploring Environmental Issues:
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Exploring Environmental Issues:
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Learn about exotic species, take a forest inventory of plants and animals, and learn how to measure trees. |
Learn how Risk are assessed, perceived by experts and lay people. |
The Changing Forest:
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Exploring Environmental Issues:
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S.C. Project Learning Tree Outreach Programs
S.C. Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator of the Year Award
Each year South Carolina Project Learning Tree (PLT) recognizes one PLT trained teacher for exemplary or outstanding PLT projects or use of PLT in the classroom. Nominations may be from schools or self-nominations are accepted. The award winner is presented a plaque recognizing their contribution to environmental education and an all expense paid trip to the S.C. Forestry Association’s Annual Conference. Winners are also offered admission to the S.C. Teachers’Tour - an all expense paid four-day summer tour of the forests and forest industry in South Carolina, a two-year position on the state Steering Committee, as well as possible nomination for the National PLT Outstanding Educator’s Award.
GREENWORKS Grant for community service projects.
The Greenworks grant program is offered by the National PLT program to provide money for community service programs. To learn more about this program go to the National PLT website at www.plt.org .
The BRANCH Newsletter
The BRANCH newsletter is a bi-annual environmental newsletter to inform and update PLT workshop participants about interesting happenings in the PLT program. The BRANCH newsletter can also be viewed on the National website www.plt.org .
TREE TRUNKS
Each area S.C. Forestry Commission office has a wooden "Tree Trunk" box for use by trained PLT educators. These boxes are full of helpful tools such as tree cookies, books, videos and measuring instruments that can be used to help teach forestry related topics and PLT activities. Teachers may sign out a tree trunk free on a two-week loan from any area Forestry Commission office.
BECOME A PLT FACILITATOR
Join the list of volunteer professionals who conduct workshops throughout the state. If you have participated in a PLT educator’s workshop, you may want to become a SC PLT trained facilitator. Facilitator training is a two-day leadership workshop where participants learn how to conduct workshops. Once trained, facilitators can organize and conduct workshops throughout the state. All materials and help will be provided. Volunteers can be reimbursed for travel expenses and substitute’s pay if the facilitator is an educator. Contact the State PLT Coordinator for more information.
SOUTH CAROLINA PROJECT LEARNING TREE’S 2003 OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER
This year’s 2003 S.C. Project Learning Tree’s Outstanding Educator of the Year has been awarded to Dr. Larry M. Kowalski, science specialist at Midway Elementary in Anderson School District 5.
Dr. Kowalski was chosen for his outstanding teaching abilities in incorporating PLT into his curriculum and for service beyond the formal classroom. Dr. Kowalski uses PLT materials extensively in his curriculum to provide enrichment to what is regularly covered. Says Dr. Kowalski, " PLT activities are a fun way to have students bond together as they develop and share social skills in working and learning with each other." Since 1998, Dr. Kowalski has taken approximately 500 students on a two-day overnight environmental field study in the mountains of North Carolina. Before becoming the science specialist at Midway, he was the gifted and talented science instructor for Project Challenge for Anderson 5 Schools and was awarded the "Teacher of the Year 2003-2004" by the district and the "Guiding Light Award" in 2002 presented by the SC Association for Children’s Science for his outstanding work. Dr. Kowalski is also a Project Learning Tree facilitator, training other educators on how to use PLT materials in their classrooms.
Dr. Kowalski was presented the Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator of the Year Award at this year’s SC Forestry Association’s 35th Convention at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, NC on November 12th . "It is with great pride that we recognize this outstanding educator for his accomplishments and abilities to lead his students in a better understanding of our environment" stated Jerry Shrum, SC Forestry Commission Environmental Education Coordinator and state PLT Coordinator. "By using PLT activities, Dr. Kowalski is equipping his students with the critical thinking skills which will enable them to understand and solve the complex environmental issues of the future. He sets a high example for us all to follow."
Congratulations to Dr. Larry Kowalski for his accomplishments both inside and outside the classroom.
Educator Wins National Environmental Education Award
Mrs. Derenda Marshall, a 3rd grade teacher in Spartanburg School District 5 at River Ridge Elementary School, Moore, SC has been named a winner of the national 2004 Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator of the Year for her outstanding contributions to environmental education. Mrs. Marshall is one of five educators chosen for this national recognition throughout the United States.
Mrs. Marshall was selected for her dedication to integrating environmental education into all subjects in the existing curriculum and her willingness to share her knowledge and skills with others in her profession and community. "Derenda has contributed greatly to the teaching of environmental education at River Ridge Elementary and the other schools where she has taught during her career. Through her leadership, students and fellow teachers are becoming much more environmentally conscious." states Jerry Shrum, SC PLT Coordinator who nominated her." She consistently brings in the community, the parents and other shareholders in the students’ education. In doing so, she has fostered actions in the school, the students’ homes, and in the community that go beyond her classroom. Derenda is the epitome of what this award represents."
Ms. Marshall was presented the award at the National PLT Coordinators’ Conference in North Dakota June 16th through 20th. This trip will be followed by a visit to the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon July 17th through 24th to participate in that center’s international Teachers’ Tour.
"By incorporating Project Learning Tree activities into her daily lessons, she is equipping her students with the critical thinking skills that will enable them to understand and solve the complex environmental issues of the future" states Mr. Shrum. "It is with great pride that we recognize this outstanding educator for her accomplishments and abilities to lead her students and the community in a better understanding of our environment. She sets a high standard and example for us all to follow."
Mrs. Marshall makes the fourth national winner of this award from South Carolina in the past six years. Other winners were Ms. Barbara Jo Silver in 1998 and Dr. Ed Donovan in 2000, both of Spartanburg, and Ms. Kathy Felder of Orangeburg in 2003. Congratulations to Mrs. Marshall and our state PLT educators for their outstanding success.
Benefits for the
S.C. PLT Educator of the Year
- All Expense paid opportunity to attend the annual State Forestry Association Conference and receive your plaque recognizing your accomplishments.
- Recognition in the local newspapers, statewide forestry publications, on the district level and at the SC Science Conference exhibit.
- All Expense paid opportunity to attend the SC Teachers’ Tour in June and learn more about forestry in South Carolina.
- An opportunity to serve for two years on the state PLT Steering Committee as an educational representative.
- A chance to participate in the National PLT Educator of the Year Award program.
- An opportunity to attend the Southeastern PLT Conference.
Recognize one of your teachers for their Excellence In Environmental Education
Announcing the
SC Project Learning Tree Educator of the Year Award Nominations
(pdf file)
HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?
Find out about PLT resources and activities at a six-hour workshop held in your area where you will meet with foresters, resource professionals and other educators. During this workshop, you will:
- Participate in hands-on PLT activities, both indoors and out.
- Learn more about trees and forest ecology from foresters.
- Expand your knowledge and teaching skills.
- Find out how PLT can enliven your curriculum.
- Meet and share ideas, information, and resources with other professionals.
- Receive the PLT guide free of charge and have the opportunity to plan ways in which the guide can be used in your classroom.
WORKSHOPS IN YOUR AREA
To schedule a workshop for your group, to find out about the next PLT workshop in your area, or for more information about PLT, contact the Project Learning Tree Coordinator at (803)896-8892,email, or write to:
S.C. Forestry Commission
PO Box 21707
Columbia, SC 29221
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