Washington, D.C. – Project Learning Tree® (PLT), the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), announces the launch of Every Student Learns Outside™ (www.learnoutside.org) – a national initiative designed to help educators make outdoor experiences part of their everyday lesson plans.  The initiative helps educators and parents give children meaningful contact with the natural world.

“For 30 years, Project Learning Tree has provided educators with the tools, training, and resources they need to get their students outdoors and learning about their local environment,” said Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree and Senior Vice President of AFF.  “Through Every Student Learns Outside, we’ll accelerate our on-going efforts to help teachers bring the environment into the classroom and students into the environment.”

• PLT’s multi-disciplinary curricula for Pre K-8 and secondary students teach core subjects through experiences in nature.  For example, more than half the 96 activities in PLT’s newly revised Pre K-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide take students outdoors.  PLT’s new secondary module Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live gets students outside exploring their own neighborhoods and involved in local community action projects. 

• Each year, some 25,000 educators attend PLT professional development workshops around the nation to learn how to integrate PLT into their everyday lesson plans.  These educators work directly with youth from preschool through grade 12, and in nature centers, science museums, scouting, and youth organizations.  To date, 500,000 educators have become part of the PLT community.

• PLT offers whole school programs that drive dramatic improvement in student learning.  For example, the entire faculty of Oil City Elementary Magnet School in Louisiana has received PLT training each year for the past five.  Teachers now use PLT to take their students outside almost every day – to the school’s PLT-enriched nature trail, outdoor classrooms, and a greenhouse.  The school has been recognized nationally for its complete turnaround in performance on state assessment tests. 

• GreenWorks!, PLT’s service-learning initiative, provides grants to PLT-trained educators and their students for action projects that improve local environments.  Over 14 years, PLT has supported nearly 700 projects proposed by schools across the country. 

For more information about Every Student Learns Outside, visit www.learnoutside.org. 

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. PLT uses the forest as a “window on the world” to increase students’ understanding of our complex environment and to help students learn the skills they need to make sound choices about the environment.  Developed in 1976, PLT has an international network of more than 500,000 trained educators using seven curricula covering the total environment.  The American Forest Foundation, a nonprofit organization, works for healthy forests, quality environmental education, and informed decision-making about our communities and our world.
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