Curriculum Resources

Exploring nature is a complete sensory experience, and early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of children's imaginations and their senses of wonder and curiosity—important motivators for lifelong learning. PLT’s Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood encourages children to explore, discover, and communicate in expressive ways, and provides an introduction to environmental education at a key developmental period in children’s lives.

The guide is designed to meet the common components of national education reform by using the constructivist approach to learning, whole language teaching, cooperative learning, problem solving, and authentic assessments.

PLT's Energy & Society program kit provides formal and nonformal educators with tools and activities to help students in grades PreK-8 learn about their relationship with energy and investigate the environmental issues related to energy's role in society.

Energy & Society helps students develop critical thinking skills to make decisions about their personal energy use. In addition to hands-on activities, Energy & Society integrates music and dance to enhance the study of energy issues.

You must be a registered GreenSchool! to access the investigations. Please register to access these additional resources.

Global Connections: Forests of the World was developed by Project Learning Tree in partnership with the World Forestry Center. The module activities provide students with opportunities to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills while investigating world forestry issues and conducting service-learning action projects. 

In Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Forests module, students examine ecological systems of a forest; analyze interdependencies within a forest ecosystem; and explore factors, like fire, that shape the development of forests. In addition, they develop critical thinking skills and discover the importance of scientific analysis when making decisions about forest issues.

Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live, provides educators with a useful tool for place-based education to help create a bond between young citizens and their communities. Students will explore current and future community environmental issues, enabling them to make informed decisions about those issues.

This module uses hands-on experiences to show interrelationships among waste generation, natural resource use, and disposal. The activities guide students through waste management strategies and solutions while providing the necessary tools to make informed decisions and choices on waste management issues.

This module helps students explore the different aspects of environmental and human health risks that affect their everyday lives. Through eight hands-on activities, students analyze, explore, discover, and learn about risk assessment, risk communication, risk perception, and risk management. There are also three special topics that encourage students to apply their knowledge real-life risk issues. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making are emphasized throughout the module.

Exploring Environmental Issues: Biodiversity was developed by Project Learning Tree in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund. In this sixty-page module, students learn that decisions about growth and development, energy use and water quality, and even human health, all rest to some extent on perspectives about biodiversity. 

Our Biotechnology Series is designed for high school and community college educators in the fields of Biology, Environmental Science, Social Studies, and Agriculture.  A special effort has been made to construct activities that support instruction in AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, and AP Human Geography. This module was created as a supplement to the Focus on Risk curriculum.

PLT and well-known children's performing artist and songwriter Bill Brennan have teamed together again to produce a new  CD -- all about trees!