By Susan Ward

I love for the weather to warm up a little so I can take every child outdoors.  Project Learning Tree (PLT) activities are the gateway to learning Ecology.  Since 7th grade standards in South Carolina place emphasis on the biotic and abiotic world, it is a great time for us to explore.  Having spent the past three years in an inner city school with very little surrounding property, I’m excited to be in the country with the forest ecosystem and the pond ecosystem right out our back door.

“Water Wonders”, Activity 44, introduces students to the various steps of the water cycle and helps them make connections between the water cycle and all living things.  Early on, students are taught the water cycle as though it just goes from evaporation to condensation to precipitation and then starts over again.  With this PLT activity, they learn that it involves much more.  It allows them to do critical thinking and make inferences.  In the activity, students assume the role of a water droplet and follow its path.  At the conclusion of the trip taken by each water droplet, students use their English language arts (ELA) skills to create stories describing the journey they just experienced.  The ELA teachers really appreciate the inclusion to help strengthen writing skills. 

At first my students thought I was a little nuts when I told them we were going to “Adopt a Tree”, Activity 21.  Once we were outside, they were like kids in a candy store.  Each student searched diligently for the perfect tree.  Their drawings were intricate, they named their tree, and they got great practice in recording observations.  This activity leads right into so many others:  “Trees as Habitats” (Activity 22), “How Big is Your Tree” (Activity 67), “The Closer You Look” (Activity 61), “Trees in Trouble” (Activity 77), and more.   Time is the only thing that limits the activities.

You can’t leave out “School Yard Safari,” Activity 46, while you are enjoying the outdoors.  Even in that inner city schoolyard, you can find evidence of animal habitats, but in the country there are different things to get excited about, including termites, black bear tracks, and everything in between. 

With most children having cell phones that have camera capabilities, you can easily incorporate technology into these lessons.  We have collected pictures of trees, tracks, and other items, all while students are having a great time learning Ecology standards outdoors. 

The most rewarding thing about teaching PLT activities is the faces of those students that you have never been able to reach in the classroom.  Suddenly, they become alive and eager to learn.  The cross-curriculum connections allow these students to carry this eagerness into every subject.  I just love it when you hear a child so excited that she and a friend are going to go home and adopt a tree!  Learning should be fun and PLT assures that these students grow up learning how to appreciate their environment.  Yes, Project Learning Tree teaches how to think, not what to think.

So what happens next?  I haven’t told my principal yet, but after statewide testing, my students want to construct a nature trail through the woods.  We just have to be on the lookout for the Black Bears.

Susan Ward teaches at Blackwater Middle School in Conway, South Carolina.  She is a 2008 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator.