New online e-units

for grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8

The e-units are everything you expect from Project Learning Tree: Hands-on and engaging activities that help teach students how – not what – to think about the environment and their place within it. They also make teaching and learning fun.

Use code EXPLORER to get 30% off any of PLT's e-units!

Access the e-units

Free Download: Picture a Tree Activity for Grades K-2

This hands-on activity helps students in grades K-2 observe the structure of a tree. In this activity, students will go outdoors to take a closer look at trees and their parts. This activity is part of Project Learning Tree's e-unit, Treemendous Science! for grades K-2, so be sure to check out the full curriculum!

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Picture a Tree activity

Free Download: Web of Life Activity and Worksheet for Grades 3-5

This hands-on activity helps students in grades 3-5 put their new knowledge about food chains and food webs into practice. It also explores interdependent relationships in ecosystems as part of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This activity is part of Project Learning Tree's e-unit on Energy in Ecosytems for grades 3-5, so be sure to check out the full curriculum!

Web of life activity

Free Download: Carbon Cycle in Action Worksheet for Grades 6-8

This hands-on exercise helps middle school students put their new knowledge about the carbon cycle into practice. It also incorporates science and engineering practices defined by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  

This activity is part of Project Learning Tree's e-unit on Carbon & Climate for grades 6-8, so be sure to check out the full curriculum!

Carbon Cycle in Action Activity

About Project Learning Tree

Project Learning Tree helps develop students’ awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the environment, builds their skills and ability to make informed decisions, and encourages them to take personal responsibility for sustaining the environment and our quality of life that depends on it. 

Since it began over 40 years ago, Project Learning Tree has trained 775,000 educators to help students learn how to think, not what to think about complex environmental issues.

About PLT's E-Units for Grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8

The e-units are everything you expect from Project Learning Tree: Hands-on and engaging activities that help teach students how – not what – to think about the environment and their place within it. They also make teaching and learning fun.

Access the e-units

For grades K-2

Students will develop an understanding about how trees grow, the roles trees play in ecosystems, and the ways in which trees and humans interact.  

Access the e-unit

For grades 3-5

PLT e-unit for grades 3-5

Students will investigate the ways organisms depend on each other to survive and thrive. They will come to understand the interactions present in ecosystems.

For grades 6-8

PLT e-unit for grades 6-8

This e-unit provides activities and resources to help educators introduce some of the complex issues involved in climate change.  

Benefits of the the e-units

Hands-On Activities

Get students excited about science through hands-on activities, rather than simply memorizing facts.

Meets NGSS Standards

The e-units are constructed around targeted performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). 

Flexible Curriculum

Use activities as stand-alone investigations, or move through all the e-unit activities from beginning to end. 

Connections to academic standards

Project Learning Tree ’s e-units feature comprehensive, interactive connections to academic standards: Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Math, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies.

Each e-unit contains:

  •  Detailed step-by-step lesson plans
  •  Downloadable student pages to guide learning
  •  A range of assessment tools, including pre- and post-assessments and evaluation rubrics
  •  Easy-to-understand teacher background information
  •  Comprehensive, interactive connections to academic standards
  •  A self-paced online workshop with video demonstrations of the activities and lesson planning exercises
  •  Suggestions for fiction and non-fiction books to enhance the activities
  •  Links to websites, videos, and other supplementary resources 


Teachers who subscribe to an e-unit from Project Learning Tree will have access to quality learning activities any time, anywhere.

What teachers are saying about Project Learning Tree's e-units

“I teach in the middle of coal country, Eastern Kentucky, and was very hesitant to teach this topic in depth. I want to thank you for helping me to approach a difficult topic with my students from a scientific point of view and for helping change perceptions in our region.”

--Susan Marvin

Teacher in Kentucky

“It is easy to do, not a huge amount of preparation, and can be done even in an urban environment.”

--Laura Baker

Teacher in Indiana

“I honestly found the unit resources to be among the most well-organized resources I have ever used.” 

--Agnes Zellin

Teacher in New York 

Use code EXPLORER to get 30% off any of PLT's e-units!

Whether you regularly use the outdoors as a classroom or tend to hesitate every time you take your class outside, this unit is an invitation to increase the quantity and quality of your K-2 learners’ contact with nature and trees. 

Treemendous Science! students will explore, experience, observe, and collect tree data to develop understandings about how trees grow, the roles trees play in ecological systems, and the ways in which trees and humans interact.

A unique feature of Treemendous Science! is that it’s organized around three mini-units geared to different developmental levels. You have the option of presenting one level in its entirety or picking and choosing from the different levels, depending on the needs of your students.

Access the Treemendous Science! e-unit
PLT e-unit for grades K-2

The Energy in Ecosystems e-unit investigates the ways in which organisms depend on each other to survive and thrive. Students focus on forests—one of the largest and most complex types of ecosystems—and come to understand some of the interactions present in all ecosystems. In doing so, they learn to appreciate the natural systems on which we depend and begin to widen their circle of compassion to include all of nature.

The Energy in Ecosystems e-unit explores these essential questions: 

  •   What is an ecosystem? 
  •   In what ways do living things interact in an ecosystem? 
  •   How does energy flow through an ecosystem? 
  •   What can individuals do to sustain ecosystems?  

This unit is designed as an introduction to ecosystems and some of the ways that organisms interact within ecosystems. 

PLT e-unit for grades 3-5

Perhaps more than any other environmental issue, the topic of climate change challenges science teachers to accurately convey data, reveal assumptions, and engage critical-thinking skills. Project Learning Tree's Carbon & Climate e-unit provides activities and resources to help educators meet these challenges, introducing students to some of the complex issues involved in climate change.  

The Carbon & Climate e-unit explores these essential questions: 

  •  What is climate?
  •  How does climate affect living systems?
  •  What role does carbon play in climate?
  •  What can we learn from past changes in the global climate?
  •  What can individuals do about climate change? 


This unit is designed as an introduction to climate science and its associated social, political, and environmental challenges.  

PLT e-unit for grades 6-8

Use code EXPLORER to get 30% off any of PLT's e-units!

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