American Forest Foundation Blog

PLT GreenSchools! Teacher Receives White House Award

Dominick DeRosa, a teacher at a Project Learning Tree GreenSchool! in Kansas City, Kansas, has received the 2013 Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators. "The teachers who have earned this award are inspiring our nation's future leaders to be responsible stewards of our environment, and preparing them to excel in the 21st century economy," said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which administers the award program along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Growing a New Generation of Conservation Leaders

I recently toured a PLT GreenSchool! in Washington, D.C. along with high ranking officials from the USDA and met seven energetic middle schoolers who have made a big difference in the environmental awareness of their community.

Twenty Four PLT GreenSchools! Named Green Ribbon Schools

Happy Earth Day!  We’re thrilled that 24 of the 64 national Green Ribbon Schools announced today by the U.S. Department of Education are registered Project Learning Tree GreenSchools!  We congratulate them on having been recognized as the 'best of the best.’

What Advice Would You Give Students Interested in Pursuing a Green Career?

Our new series of PLT GreenSchools! webinars kicks off today at 4pm ET. A dynamic group of student leaders from one of PLT's model GreenSchools--Bloomfield Vocational Technical School in Bloomfield, NJ--will share how greening their school is inspiring them to pursue green careers.  Join the discussion!  Ask a question, or share your expertise, about how young people might prepare for the ever-growing green jobs industry and economy of the future.

Announcing a New Series of PLT GreenSchools! Webinars

Project Learning Tree is proud to be a part of the U.S. Department of Education 2013 Green Strides Webinar Series that provides school communities the tools to reduce their schools’ environmental impact and costs; improve health and wellness; and teach effective environmental education. Five new webinars will be anchored by dynamic PLT student Green Teams from across the nation, along with education and environmental professionals.

Coronado Green Team Goes National

Meet the Green Team from Coronado Elementary School in Albuquerque, NM. These four pioneering kids took their community by storm with their documentary. Now they are going national. They will join PLT at the Green Schools National Conference to be held February 22-24 in West Palm Beach, FL to present their documentary and talk about their experiences greening their school to hundreds of conference attendees from around the country.

PLT GreenSchools!: Get Inspired to Reduce Waste on “America Recycles Day”

Today is “America Recycles Day” - a great opportunity to recognize the efforts of so many PLT GreenSchools! that have used the Waste and Recycling Investigation to reduce the amount of trash their schools send to landfills. Plus, check out some great teacher resources and backgrounders on waste and recycling.

New Forest Service Training Grants Give Boost to PLT GreenSchools!

Since the earliest beginnings  of PLT GreenSchools!, we have been fortunate to partner with the U.S. Forest Service Conservation Education Program in our work to help students, teachers and schools make their schools and communities greener. This year, the Forest Service has boosted its support, sponsoring a series of trainings in conjunction with regional Forest Service offices in seven states.

PLT GreenSchools! Grant Applications Due September 30!

Are you a registered PLT GreenSchool! with big ideas about how to make your school and community greener? Need some “green” to help make it happen? PLT GreenWorks! grants are available to help school Green Teams make their projects a reality. But you’ll need to hurry! The application deadline is September 30.

PLT GreenSchools! Rings in the New School Year with Expanded Grants Program, Revamped Website

Here at PLT GreenSchools!, our summer has been a busy one! We’ve used the time to make the GreenSchools! program even better for students and teachers. We’re beginning the 2012-13 school year with some exciting developments.

Energy, Recycling, and Gardening Projects Green a Kansas City High School

High school science teacher Michael Hotz has “been doing green things for years and years and years.” Ever since his school, Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, KS, became a PLT GreenSchool!, his students have accomplished much more.

Green Energy Is Heart of Curriculum at PLT GreenSchool! in New Jersey

Students at Bloomfield Vocational Technical School, a PLT GreenSchool! in New Jersey, have completed all five of the PLT GreenSchools! Investigations, implemented innovative—and money-saving—projects to make their already green school even greener, and regularly present their work, not only in their community but to national audiences, as well.

PLT GreenSchools! Webinars Offer Tools for Transforming Schools

In our quest to give PLT GreenSchools! the tools they need to be even more effective, we have been offering a series of free, online webinars that bring together student presenters with expert panelists who share their experience and resources with online attendees.

Ten PLT GreenSchools! Named Green Ribbon Schools

Today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the winners of the inaugural Green Ribbon Schools competition and we're thrilled that ten PLT GreenSchools! are among those recognized as the “best of the best.”

Celebrating Environmental Education with the White House

On Monday, Kathy McGlauflin (AFF Senior VP, Education) and Al Stenstrup (Director, Education Programs, PLT) and attended the first White House Summit on Environmental Education. 

Kansas City High School Students Work Toward a Greener Future

When Randi Hartin, a junior at Schlagle High School in Kansas City, KS, was asked to speak at a local conference, she agreed. During an in-depth panel discussion, she and three other high-school students fielded questions from a group of adults that included the president of the Kansas state Parent Teacher Student Association.

Students are the Stars in the PLT GreenSchools! Program

Students  lead the way in making their schools healthier, greener, more sustainable. They become leaders, and are able to test their new leadership skills in situations usually dominated by adults.

PLT GreenSchools! Featured at National Conference

The PLT GreenSchools! program was well-represented last week in Denver, Colorado, as thousands of leading educators from all over the U.S. gathered to discuss the burgeoning field of environmental education at the 2^nd Annual Green Schools National Conference.

Latino GreenSchools! Students in National Spotlight This Week

In 1971, when the late social justice activist and Latino leader Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales incorporated Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios, a PLT GreenSchool in Denver, CO,  he did so because he believed that the Denver public school system was not responding adequately to the educational needs of the community’s Latino children.

PLT GreenSchools! and U.S. Forest Service: Nurturing Conservation Education

The PLT GreenSchools! program is built on partnerships, and one of our key partners since the program’s beginning in 2009 has been the U.S. Forest Service, which has provided funding and staff expertise every step of the way.

PLT GreenSchools! Gardens Thrive with Help from Chef’s Green Thumb

Former chef Mark Haskell, a certified Master Gardener, has perfected a school garden recipe that has as its main ingredients the PLT GreenSchools! investigations, his own green thumb and passion for home-grown food, and the excitement of city-raised students who for the first time are learning the connections between gardening and the food they eat.

New Year Offers New GreenSchools! Learning Opportunities

The PLT GreenSchools! program team is looking ahead to an exciting new year for GreenSchools!

PLT GreenSchools! in Connecticut: Young Naturalists Inspire Hope

As an urban forester—or a “forest-her,” as my mother would say—I have made a commitment to protect the health of the forests in which we live, work and play. But I have also made a commitment to the educational development of our youth, who will be protecting our forests after me.

PLT GreenSchools! Gives My Students Leadership Opportunities—And a Voice

All the projects our Green Rivers club has undertaken have grown from a Project Learning Tree GreenSchools! training that I, two science teachers, and two of our seventh-graders attended back in the fall of 2009.

Five GreenSchools! Students Take on a Roomful of Science Teachers

Recently five middle school students from Two Rivers Magnet Middle School in Connecticut had the opportunity to present at a National Science Teachers Association conference in Hartford about what their green team does and what they have accomplished.

PLT GreenSchools! Plays on the National Stage at NAAEE Conference

The PLT GreenSchools! program was a hot topic at the 40^th annual conference of the North American Alliance for Environmental Education (NAAEE). I joined more than 1,000 teachers, administrators, government agencies and nonprofit organizations involved in K-12 environmental education programs across the U.S. PLT and the GreenSchools! program were well represented throughout this year's conference.

We're tickled "Green!"

The U.S. Department of Education released their final plans for the new Green Ribbon Schools awards program last week.  Through this program, the Department is seeking to recognize schools that save energy, reduce costs, and feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, as well as protect health, foster wellness and impart effective environmental education.  

Urban tree identification volunteer day at Paul Middle School

The morning of September 15^th was filled with tree measurements and identifications, gardening, and painting water proofing paint on the beautiful mural that was created by Michelle Goosby and Paul Middle School Students.  Keep reading to hear more about our day of volunteering and learning.

Nominate a School for a Chance to Win a Green Makeover

In the United States, we spend more on school energy bills than we do for textbooks and computers combined. Sadly, countless children attend school in classrooms with no daylight and stuffy, moldy air made worse by toxic cleaning supplies. 

Global Green USA, an environmental non-profit organization, is hosting a Green School Makeover Competition with a $65,000 cash prize, plus approximately $65,000 of in-kind technical assistance, to help one winning school go green.

GreenSchools! Team Volunteers at McKinley Technology High School

Gathering on the HSBC Corporate Day of Service, the USDA Forest Service and Urban Forestry Administration employees met at McKinley Technology High School for a morning of volunteer activities at this Project Learning Tree Green School!

A South Carolinian Teacher Goes to Washington, Talks GreenSchools!

“I’m just a bill, yeah, I’m only a bill, and I’m sittin’ here on Capitol Hill…” the old Schoolhouse Rock song was plunking its way through my brain as I walked up to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.  I was joined in the nation's capital by other educators to share the successes of Project Learning Tree’s GreenSchools! with our political leaders.

Students Transform Washington, D.C. Community with Eco-Mural

The immense wall at the intersection of 8^th Street and Peabody Street Northwest used to be a huge, rusty cement eye sore of the Brightwood community in Washington, D.C. However, sixth grade students at Paul Public Charter School--a Project Learning Tree GreenSchool--had other plans for that space.

PLT GreenSchools!: 808 Green Ribbon Award Contenders

Project Learning Tree's Kathy McGlauflin spent the morning outdoors at the Department of Education headquarters in D.C. and was present during the announcement of the Green Ribbon schools program.

Reflections on Earth Day: It Takes a Village

Despite the apparent skepticism from media and bloggers about whether Earth Day has outlived its usefulness, we were proud to celebrate a model PLT GreenSchool! on Earth Day.

Project Learning Tree Celebrates Earth Day with School Garden Planting

In celebration of Earth Day, Project Learning Tree and the U.S. Forest Service joined students of D.C.'s Barnard Elementary School to plant in 12 organic raised garden beds.

Green Captains in Georgia: Students Present at National Service-Learning Conference

10th grade student Madeleine shares her GreenSchools! experience at the National Youth Leadership Council's 2011 National Service-Learning Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Barnard Elementary Students show USDA Sec. Vilsack Forest Exchange Box at Year of Forests Event

The principal of Washington, D.C.’s Barnard Elementary School talks about her evening at the International Year of Forests celebration, where she and fellow students, parents and teachers presented Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack with a copy of The Giving Tree.

PLT’s GreenSchools! Helps Promote STEM Education in DC, Virginia

Project Learning Tree (PLT) program has helped engage millions of students in environment and STEM education.  In Virginia yesterday, I saw PLT in action when I attended a GreenSchools! program training for local teachers and students. PLT’s GreenSchools! is a program of the American Forest Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.

PLT GreenSchool Receives USDA Healthier Schools Gold Award

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in a ceremony to recognize the students and staff at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School – one of Project Learning Tree’s model GreenSchools! in Washington, DC – for their efforts to create a healthier school environment through proper nutrition and physical activity.

Greening Our Schools

I recently attended and presented at the first Green Schools National Conference held in Minneapolis and it was inspirational to see the broad spectrum of green school activities that are happening nationally. Project Learning Tree GreenSchools! is a national program of the American Forest Foundation that combines environmental education, service-learning, and leadership opportunities for students to reduce the ecological footprint of their school, and turn their school into a model GreenSchool. 

NH Elementary School Credits Dramatic Increase in Science Scores to PLT

For nearly two years, New HampshireProject Learning Tree has been working closely with Nashua District’s Bicentennial Elementary School, a model “PLT GreenSchool”.  The school’s principal, Kyle Langille credits PLT in part for the school’s dramatic increase in 4th grade science scores announced today by the New Hampshire Department of Education. 

Training GreenSchools! Student Leaders

About 70 students and teachers from 10 middle and high schools from the greater Tulsa area are attending a two-day professional development training workshop in Owasso, OK learning how to conduct school-wide investigations in five areas: energy use, waste and recycling, water, school site, and environmental quality (such as indoor air quality, school transportation, and use of chemicals).  As one of the facilitators of this workshop, I’m teaching teams of middle- and high-school students, alongside their teachers – and this is what makes Project Learning Tree’s GreenSchools! program so unique.

8th Grader Describes his Energy-saving GreenSchools! Project to Iowa Senator

Yesterday, one of Project Learning Tree’s Iowa GreenSchools! families, the Isbells, along with AFF’s Melissa Harden (far right) and James McGirt (far left), were afforded the opportunity to meet with Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and his staff. The gathering, which was held to allow the Senator to connect with his constituents, had about 25 people in

WNBA and PLT Help Elementary Students Plant School Garden

The Washington Mystics players worked with 30 students from PreK through 4th grade to help green their school.  Master Chef and Gardener Mark Haskell helped lead activities in which students learned the basics of planting a garden and the importance of proper nutrition.   "You have to dig the hole about 12 inches," a 2nd grader told me before planting a tomato plant.

Project Learning Tree’s GreenSchools! Program Takes Root

Project Learning Tree (PLT), the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation, is progressing rapidly on the development and implementation of its GreenSchools! program.  In 2009, a pilot group of schools have been selected to trial a national GreenSchools! initiative.  Students and teachers at 38 schools in ten states will receive training in environmental education and Project Learning Tree.  Students will investigate environmental issues at their school and come up with an action plan to create a green and heathy learning environment. Based on their investigations, students will work with their community in service-learning projects to create a model GreenSchool.