Forests and Water: Advisor Training for Envirothon 2020

Posted on April 30, 2019May 3, 2019 by Jackie Stallard

Tackle the 2020 Envirothon topic of water with Project Learning Tree!

Project Learning Tree (PLT) is a renowned environmental education program that provides high-quality professional development, award-winning curriculum materials, and local resources and support to PreK-12 teachers and other educators. PLT is an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

The Envirothon is a hands-on environmental problem-solving competition for high school-aged students in the United States and Canada. Participating teams complete training and testing in five natural resource categories: i.e., soils / landuse, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues. Envirothon is a program of the National Conservation Foundation.

This year, some 50 student teams representing the United States, Canada, and other countries will put their skills to the test July 28-August 2 at North Carolina University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The theme for the 2019 natural resources education competition is Agriculture and the Environment: Knowledge and Technology to Feed the World. SFI/PLT are proud to be sponsors of Envirothon again this year.

Forests, Water, and Project Learning Tree!

While students compete, teachers and advisors who plan to coach high school student teams for next year’s 2020 NCF-Envirothon competition are invited to join us for a full day PLT workshop.

The theme for Envirothon next year is Water Resources Management: Local Control and Local Solutions and this day-long workshop will combine NC State researchers with educators as we explore issues around water and forests.

Time will be spent in the field and in NC State’s Center for Geospatial Analytics geovisualization lab to learn how researchers collect data and use modeling to help answer pressing research questions. Activities from PLT’s secondary modules will help bring these discussions into your classroom.

Date: Thursday, August 1

Time: 8:30am – 4:30pm (1.5 hour lunch included)

Participants Receive:

6 Contact Hours to count towards professional development credits in your home state
Time in NC State University’s state-of-art GIS lab
Hands-on experiences with ARC-GIS resources and tangible landscape
Focus on Forests PLT Guide
Places We Live PLT Guide
Teaching with i-Tree Curriculum
Geospatial Applications for Problem Solving Activities

Cost: $20 donation that goes right back to support NCF-Envirothon programming!

Register Today:

Download a Flyer:

Forests and Water: Advisor Training for Envirothon 2020

Questions?

Contact North Carolina PLT State Coordinator:
Renee Strnad
919-515-5518
[email protected]

Advice from Your True Nature

Posted on July 17, 2018September 25, 2018 by Jackie Stallard

Your True Nature and Project Learning Tree are delighted to announce that we are teaming up to help further our organizations’ collective impact on environmental education! Our missions share fundamental values and principles, including growing a love of nature and fostering meaningful outdoor learning experiences.

You have probably seen Your True Nature’s popular Advice from Nature bookmarks, magnets, books, and posters at your local gift store or one of many national parks across the country, or you may be one of their 500+ teacher members who use their materials in your classroom. Your True Nature (YTN) has created over 200 Advice messages, providing inspiration to people across the globe! The Advice from Nature concept celebrates the wisdom of nature and invites everyone to connect with and learn from the living world around them.

PLT and Your True Nature Resources

Go to yourtruenature.com/plt to explore YTN’s Advice from Nature products as well as a variety of free resources, including lessons for specific topics and grade levels, correlations to PLT activities, and printable handouts for PLT workshop facilitators.

(Note: this site is hosted on Dropbox but you don’t need an account to access it. Simply click the “Open in Paper” button.)

Special Offer

To celebrate our partnership, YTN is offering a 30% discount on all Advice items through the end of August for members of the PLT community.

Plus, an additional 10% of all purchases will be donated to PLT.

After exploring the products and resources, if you’d like to purchase an Advice item:

Go to https://shop.yourtruenature.com/collections/plt
Enter the code EDUCATOR-PLTDIS at checkout to receive your 30% discount.

To repay the earth for its generosity, all YTN products use recycled paper and are 100% replanted with nearly 120,000 trees that have already taken root! Your PLT orders can make a difference in many ways. YTN will plant additional trees for each PLT order over $30 and report back each year how many trees will be planted from PLT orders!

Through our partnership, YTN and PLT will promote environmental education, increasing awareness and conservation of the beautiful world that is in our care. We hope you’ll find something special to share the love of nature with your community and take some Advice from a Sunflower: Spread Seeds of Happiness!

PLT Seeks K-2 Teachers to Review New Science Unit

Posted on April 1, 2016August 25, 2016 by Jackie Stallard

Project Learning Tree is seeking Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classroom teachers to review a new, online instructional unit for students at these grade levels. The K-2 unit, called Treemendous Science!, will invite students (and their teachers) to explore, experience, observe, and collect tree data to develop understandings about how trees grow, roles they play in ecological systems, and the ways in which trees and humans interact.

Treemendous Science! is truly novel in its approach, as it was constructed around—rather than correlated to—targeted Performance Expectations within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

NGSS Performance Expectations

Created for kindergarten to second grade classrooms, Treemendous Science! is built around the following NGSS Performance Expectations:

K-LS1-1 – From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
K-ESS2-1 – Earth’s Systems. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
1-ESS-1-2 – Earth’s Place in the Universe. Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.
2-PS1-1 – Matter and its Interactions. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
2-LS4-1 – Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

K-2 classroom teachers interested in reviewing PLT’s new Treemendous Science! unit this summer are invited to complete a brief application at http://pltpilot.org by May 10, 2016.

Teacher Review

Accepted K-2 practitioners will be asked to review the draft Treemendous Science! unit for their specific grade level (Kindergarten, Grade 1, or Grade 2). You will be asked about certain common unit components (such as unit introduction, teacher background, learning centers, and green schools connections), as well as the customized age-level specific instructional content.

Selected practitioners will not be asked to field test any of the content, rather they will be asked to read, review, and respond to detailed questionnaires.

Stipends are available for all accepted selected K-2 participants, based upon the successful completion of all project components.

National PLT will confirm teacher participants in June, and the review period will last approximately 6-8 weeks immediately following (approximately July – August). Please be advised that classroom teachers of Grades K-2 will be given priority, and stipends will be sent following the successful completion of all required questionnaires.

Next Steps

K-2 classroom teachers interested in reviewing PLT’s new Treemendous Science! unit this summer are invited to complete a brief application at http://pltpilot.org by May 10, 2016.
We also invite you to share this opportunity with others.

Contact Jaclyn Stallard ([email protected]) with any questions or concerns.

New Online Lessons Ready for Pilot Testing

Posted on July 22, 2015September 22, 2021 by Jackie Stallard

Project Learning Tree is in the process of creating several new online lessons designed specifically for classroom teachers in Grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Two of these new online units are ready to be pilot tested.

- “Energy in Ecosystems” for Grades 3-5, and
- “Carbon and Climate” for Grades 6-8

Classroom teachers interested in participating in this formative evaluation should complete the brief pilot test application form at http://pltpilot.org by July 31.

Teachers will be asked to test the PLT lesson content with their students in the Fall, and provide feedback on the navigation for the new online units and website design. More information about the lessons and process for pilot testing will be provided in August to individuals who provide their contact information.

Classroom teachers of Grades 3-8 will be given priority, and stipends will be available.

If you are interested in learning more about what’s involved, and you are willing to pilot test PLT’s new online lessons with your students later this year, sign up today at http://pltpilot.org. Thank you!