About PLT

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. PLT is a program of the American Forest Foundation. It is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad, and continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence.

PLT helps students learn how to think, not what to think, about the environment.

PLT meets state and national education standards.  The curriculum materials provide the tools educators need to bring the environment into the classroom and their students into the environment. Topics range from forests, wildlife, and water, to community planning, waste management and energy.

PLT is a network of 3,000 grassroots volunteers and over 120 state coordinators that work with formal and nonformal educators, school staff, state agencies, foresters, businesses, civic organizations, museums, nature centers, and youth groups to provide professional development programs. To date, more than 500,000 educators are trained in using PLT materials, reaching approximately 26 million students in the United States and abroad.

Read PLT's 2008 Annual Report

PLT improves student learning.
Through PLT, students learn environmental content that correlates to national and state standards in science, social studies, language arts, math, and other subjects – and strengthen their critical thinking, team building, and problem solving skills.

PLT works for teachers and other educators because:

• PLT materials are aligned with state and national education standards.
• PLT is broad based: topics cover the total environment and are local, national, and global in scope.
• PLT provides the one great lesson a week you wish you had time to plan.
• PLT is adaptable to many contexts: classroom, playground, nature center, home.
• PLT can be easily adapted to various audiences: PreK-12 students, Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, nature center and museum visitors, 4-H clubs, and other community groups.
• PLT is cross-curricular: easy to infuse its environmental lessons into science, language arts, special education, and other classes.

PLT Connects Children to Nature

Project Learning Tree gets kids outside.  We provide the training, resources, and support teachers need to help them make outdoor experiences part of everyday lesson plans.  We have also adapted many PLT activities for parents and families to use with children in the outdoors

PLT’s Outstanding Educators:

Since 1994, national PLT has officially recognized the dedicated efforts of the people that bring PLT into the classroom, nature centers, universities, and youth groups.

"Project Learning Tree has made my work more rewarding and less time consuming!  It’s always been easy to find a PLT activity that engages my students, gets them excited about natural resources, and meets my teaching requirements.  Children have a natural curiosity about their environment, and programs such as Project Learning Tree nurture that curiosity.  Thanks to Project Learning Tree for continuing to be a leader in environmental education where students get excited about the natural world and learn how to think, not what to think!"
- Anne Bohnet, Director of the Science and Technology Enrichment Program for the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center at the University of South Carolina in Aiken (USCA) and a Project Learning Tree 2006 National Outstanding Educator of the Year