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Places We Live

Places We Live

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“'Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live' was great. It provided me with lots of hands-on, practical activities that I can implement in my classroom.”

- Vermont High School Teacher

“This module contains powerful activities that encouraged my students to explore real-world problems and allowed them to work together to solve the problems.”

- South Carolina Educator

“The student interacted well with the readings- they were challenged with the new information and utilized some of their prior knowledge of their community.”

- New Mexico Educator

 

 

Overview

All communities – urban, suburban, small town, rural – are experiencing growth and change, which has an impact on each community's environment.

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. Through eight hands-on activities, students will explore current and future community environmental issues, enabling them to make informed decisions about those issues.

 

Get the Materials

To obtain this resource, educators must attend a Project Learning Tree professional development workshop.  Contact your PLT State Coordinator to find and register for a workshop near you.

 

Student Activities

  • Activity 2: Community Character
    Students explore community character and investigate ways that communities, including their own, are responding to growth and development pressures.
  • Activity 3: Mapping Your Community Through Time
    Student teams investigate the social, cultural, economic, aesthetic, and environmental components of their community to create map overlays and reports describing the development of their community through time.
  • Activity 4: Neighborhood Design
    Students explore the current layout of their neighborhoods, critically evaluate a variety of development options, and formulate ideas for guiding further growth in their communities.
  • Activity 5: Green Space
    Students investigate green infrastructure and native plant communities at the neighborhood, community, and regional scales. They also explore the dual needs to accommodate population growth and to protect green space and native plant communities.
  • Activity 7: Far-Reaching Decisions
    Students develop graphic organizers and creative presentations to illustrate how individual decisions can impact the local environment, as well as distant communities. They also measure their own ecological footprint.

 

Additional Resources

The resources below are relevant for the entire module.  For additional activity-specific resources, such as Student Pages, please visit our searchable resources database.

 

Reprinting and Copyright Information

All PLT curriculum materials are protected under copyright laws. Contact the National PLT Office for permission to adapt or distribute Project Learning Tree curriculum materials.   Please remember to reproduce responsibly.

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