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Home / Washington Business - March/April 2004 / Environmental Education: Learning + Kids + Trees = Fun |
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Environmental Education: Learning + Kids + Trees = Fun |
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Written On: March/April 2004 |
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Written By: Story and photos by Daniel Brunell |
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On a chilly winter morning, Jan Cereghino’s fourth grade class from Olympia’s Pioneer Elementary step off their bus at Port Blakely Tree Farm just west of the state Capitol. Kelly Stanley, the company’s environmental educational coordinator, greets the students with the enthusiasm and energy of a kid visiting Disneyland for the first time.
The scene is reminiscent of a Grimm’s fairy tale with children walking through the dark woods on a tour of discovery. Stanley keeps them busy with activities such as naming species of trees, looking for wildlife, and naming the products that come from trees. Over the next four hours, Cereghino’s students will have fun in their outdoor classroom learning about a natural environment only a few miles from their homes. This is what Project Learning Tree (PLT) is all about.
Project Learning Tree Started in 1973
PLT started in 1973 when natural resource managers from the American Forest Institute (now the American Forest Foundation) and educators from the Western Regional Environmental Education Council (now the Council of Environmental Education) formed a partnership to develop an unbiased, science-based environmental education curriculum for elementary and secondary students and teachers.
Since its inception, more then 300,000 educators and 26 million students have participated in the program.
Washington was one of the first states to adopt PLT. The Washington Forest Protection Association (WFPA) launched it in 1976 and continues to sponsor it today. It has been a vital part of our state’s environmental education curriculum ever since.
PLT is an integrated program where environmental enthusiasts, educators and forest landowners come together for a common goal. “We work with the Department of Natural Resources, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Audubon Society, superintendents, principals and school directors associations along with WFPA and private forest landowners,” said Marquette Tudor, WFPA’s Co-Director of Environment Education. “All of these organizations have a vested interest in educating children in biodiversity and what we need to do in order to manage our environment.”
Teachers Set PLT Curriculum
Even though the forest products industry is a lead PLT sponsor, educators develop the lesson plans. Forest product companies like Port Blakely and state and federal agencies provide the materials, transportation and people like Kelly Stanley to make this program work in the woods.
When asked how the program works with her lesson plans back at Pioneer, Cereghino observed that “Kelly’s teaching tour fits like a glove. It makes what we are trying to convey in the classroom to the children real.”
For example, children participate in such activities as tying orange ribbons around trees that shouldn’t be harvested and determining the age of trees by counting its ring on a stump. These activities allow the kids to actually interact with the environment – something that cannot be taught in the classroom.
The smell of the forest, the creaking of the trees against the wind, and the chirp of a far-off bird provide an ambiance that cannot be replicated anywhere else. PLT is an experience the kids won’t forget. Neither is Kelly Stanley’s indelible message: “Never cut down more trees than you can grow.”
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