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Project Learning Tree (PLT): Educating Georgia's Students about
the Environment
by: Carla Rapp, Georgia PLT
Co-coordinator
 As I walked
into Wendy Joiner's classroom I knew this was no ordinary
classroom. Every wall had pictures of Albert Einstein as well as
snakes, turtles and a host of others. I had come to see Mrs.
Joiner facilitate "Water Wonders", a PLT activity designed to
teach the water cycle, with her students. As the students came
into the classroom she instructed them to sit evenly amongst the
tables marked CLOUD, GLACIER, OCEAN, STREAM, MOUNTAIN, ANIMAL
and PLANT.
The students
were curious about what they going to do. "Everyone is going to
become a Water Molecule and you will travel from place to place
based on what the slip of paper says that you draw from the
baggie on your table. As you travel around the room keep a
record of where you have been." As the students began reading
their assignments you could tell they were getting immersed in
the activity. Mrs. Joiner called out "Okay cycle!!!" and the
students began "dripping, dropping and rolling" around the room.
After a couple of rounds you could hear the kids saying "Oh no
I'm still in the Cloud!" or "I can't believe I got eaten by
a Plant!"
When the
students had gone through several more rounds, Mrs. Joiner asked
the students to get out the laptops and create a Power Point
Presentation about their journey as a Water Molecule. Earlier in
the school year, Wendy received a technology grant which allowed
her to purchase a classroom set of laptop computers and to
outfit the school with wireless Internet access.
"I really
like having the technology component that I can add to my
lessons. This PLT activity works perfectly for the students to
use Power Point to create their stories about being a Water
Molecule," Wendy explained. "PLT is great, I always use the
activities with my students and they just love it- and so do I!"
Wendy Joiner is the 7th & 8th grade gifted science teacher at
Rutland Middle School in Bibb County and attended the first
Georgia Teacher Conservation Workshop in 2005 and in the spring
of 2006 she brought her students to Forestry Education Center
for a Forestry Field Day event.
Click here to see a sample of the students Power Point
presentations
Click here to see a video of students in the "Water Wonders" activity
(Please allow a few
minutes for the video to load)
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