PROJECT LEARNING TREE (PLT)
Trees and forests serve as windows onto the world for learning about the environment, sustainable communities, responsible purchasing of forest products, water quality, economic health and well-being, and so much more.
SFI became Project Learning Tree’s new home in 2017 because of SFI’s commitment to educating and engaging the next generation of environmental stewards. Project Learning Tree helps students understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, builds knowledge and skills necessary to address key environmental and sustainability challenges.
Project Learning Tree has reached 140 million diverse young people across the United States through 775,000 committed and dedicated educators and community leaders over the last 40 years. This program has engaged young people and adults alike in interactive, engaging, and meaningful activities while teaching them the importance of sustainable forests, and the critical role they play, along the way.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM
Project Learning Tree has hands-on and fun, ready-made lessons and activities on topics such as forests, ecosystems, wildlife, water and watersheds, forest pests, forest policy, fire, forest economics, and human health, suitable for diverse communities and geographies. Our independently evaluated activities are proven to increase student knowledge and foster positive changes in their attitudes about the environment. We pride ourselves on teaching young people how to think, not what to think about environmental topics. We are also deeply committed to ensuring our activities meet academic standards and are accessible and relevant to diverse families across North America.
Specifically meets the needs of early childhood educators and younger learners.
Bring the environment into the classroom, and students into the environment.
Help youth discover more about sustainable forestry and conservation!
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS
We offer both online courses and in-person workshops tailored for specific grade levels and education standards, environmental topics, and formal and nonformal teaching situations. Educators learn new teaching skills and become comfortable teaching outdoors. Each year, 15,000 educators take part in Project Learning Tree’s high-quality professional development, bringing our activities and programming to an additional 3 million students. Workshop participants include formal and nonformal educators, and anyone with an interest in teaching children about the natural world. Consistently rated as one of the best professional development events they have ever experienced, most educators attend a PLT workshop because they were recommended to it by a colleague.
An online course can be completed in your own time, wherever you are
Planned and conducted by trained facilitators and customized for specific grade levels, topics, and teaching situations.
Typically 2-3 hours and can be single or multiple sessions, depending on content and materials.
PLT NETWORK
PLT is growing and fostering a network of solutions-oriented young people and adults ready to lend their voice and engage on sustainability issues. PLT’s vast and diverse network is passionate, with a presence in every U.S. state and beyond, supported by a national framework. This allows for adaptations of PLT’s programs and activities, tailored to local communities to provide locally relevant, field-based learning, while tied to a broader national movement. It also facilitates community collaborations and connections to mentor teachers and natural resource professionals.
Find your State’s Coordinator
Subscribe to PLT’s monthly e-newsletter, the Branch.
CONNECTING KIDS TO NATURE
SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS
PROJECT LEARNING TREE
PROJECT LEARNING TREE CANADA
EDUCATION PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES
Project Learning Tree
Josh Brankman
VP, Education
771-777-3861
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FEATURED ARTICLE
OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS REENERGIZE KIDS DURING THE PANDEMIC
When the pandemic forced his school to go to online learning, fifth-grader Bergen Manzella spent six hours a day staring at his computer screen. “My eyes were drooping a lot and red. I was really tired staring at a screen, not being able to move around that much,” said Bergen.
