Project Learning Tree Supports "Learning by Doing" with 26 GreenWorks! Grants
Project Learning Tree® (PLT), the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), recently awarded more than $24,000 in GreenWorks! grants to schools and youth organizations in 19 states to help students complete environmental action projects to improve their community’s neighborhood.
These student-driven projects enable students to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to the real world. From restoring forests to creating marsh habitat, to planting gardens and building nature trails and outdoor classrooms, young Americans are “learning by doing.”
These grants of around $1,000 each help a school get started and supplement other sources of funding the teacher and students raise for their project. The grants are greatly valued by teachers who are always in need of resources to support their students’ learning.
Upon hearing the news of her grant to create a nature trail around the perimeter of Hillside Elementary School in Niskayuna, New York, kindergarten teacher Christine Mathews wrote to say, "PLT's support has got our kids bursting at the seams with enthusiasm and excitement about the journey we are taking this year."
The grants also help support the many PLT state partners and organizations that sponsor PLT in their state. For example, in a letter to the Board members of the Environmental Education Association of Illinois (EEAI), Illinois PLT State Coordinator Sarah Livesay said, “Please join me in congratulating Dave Auston, Environmental Science teacher at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa who has received a 2012 PLT GreenWorks! grant for habitat restoration on his school grounds.
“Thanks to EEAI adopting PLT this last year and the many PLT training opportunities offered, …Dave will be restoring a woodlot on the High School property and working with community partners such as Lake County FPD to remove buckthorn and other invasive species. Dave will be using PLT activities with his students and team-teaching as the high school students then model activities on the woodlot site with the adjacent elementary school.
“Congratulations also to the EEAI Board who sponsor PLT in Illinois and make opportunities like this available for our educators!”
PLT GreenWorks! helps teachers take their students’ knowledge to action, strengthens students’ understanding of environmental issues, and grows their sense of personal responsibility for the environment. These service-learning projects connect students to their community, and students see first-hand how they can make a difference.
PLT’s GreenWorks! program is open to any PLT-trained educator in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since 1992, AFF has distributed nearly $1 million to support more than 1,000 PLT GreenWorks! projects across the country. Proposals for the next round of grants will be due September 30, 2012. Application forms will be made available in the summer from www.GreenWorks.org.
