PLT in the City - Houston, a program of Project Learning Tree (PLT), is an urban program developed by the American Forest Foundation. This program is designed to advance environmental education and environmental stewardship among urban youth. Young people are becoming disconnected from outdoor activities and, particularly, environmental issues. With each passing school year, urban educators are confronted with how to effectively educate their students about the natural world in an often restricted, urban setting.

The PLT in the City program uses the Project Learning Tree environmental education supplemental curriculum and materials to reach students. Designed for grades pre-K through 12, the curriculum focuses on such topics as environmental issues, conservation, point and non-point pollution, forestry, watersheds, natural resource management, and energy. All of these topics are of major concern, especially for city dwellers. In order to receive the activity guide, educators must attend a six-hour, hands-on workshop.

The Environmental Institute of Houston, part of the University of Houston System is the local coordinating agency of the PLT in the City - Houston program working with the state and national PLT programs.

Schools participating in the PLT in the City program will receive recognition for their efforts in environmental education for urban teachers. In addition, schools will receive materials to support their environmental education efforts once 75% of the school's educators have attended a PLT in the City workshop.

Individual pages for each activity within the PreK-8 Guide can be found by going to http://www.plt.org/, clicking on Curriculum, then PreK-8, then scrolling down to "Resources for 2006 PreK-8 Guide By Activity."

What activity enhancing resources can you find at these pages?

• All Student Pages in a downloadable pdf format
• Technology Connections
• Assessment Opportunities
• Earth & Sky radio show correlations
• Urban & Community Forestry website connections
• Additional resources

And it's not just the PreK- 8 that has support resources listed on the website, but also the secondary modules and Energy & Society kit.

PLT in the City – Models for Integrating Environmental Education into District Curricula

At two schools, near Houston, TX, PLT in the City is making an impact. PLT Facilitators, Dr. Pam Christol and Dr. Brenda Weiser have trained all of McWhirter Elementary School’s K-5 teachers. The school is a professional development site for the University of Houston Clear Lake pre-service students. McWhirter Elementary also offers a bilingual program for the Clear Creek Independent School District in conjunction with the Head Start™ program. With this in mind, Christol and Weiser incorporated the Spanish student pages in teacher workshops and training. PLT activities are used to integrate science into other subject areas for pre-service teachers doing internships there.

At Seabrook Intermediate School, approximately 75 percent of the teachers have been trained in PLT. The focus of these trainings has been using PLT to meet continuing education requirements for Gifted/Talented certification. PLT activities make it easy for teachers to differentiate curriculum to meet the social and intellectual needs of gifted and talented learners. Additionally, the majority of science teachers have been trained in PLT’s latest curriculum, Energy & Society™. The Energy & Society™ activities have been utilized within the science department to teach physical science concepts.

These professional development opportunities were funded by PLT in the City program at the Environmental Institute of Houston.

The Cornerstone, Vol. 1 No. 1, Winter 2005