PLT Workshops

Workshops

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PLT Spring Newsletter

Special Programs

Maine Forest Facts

Annonated Literature Listing

PLT Correlations to Maine Learning Results

Maine FIG team at Colorado Springs for MyWorld training

(l. to r.) Pat Maloney, Gerry Saunders, Don Sprangers, Mike Urban & Ken Laustsen

Forest Inventory Growth (FIG) Project

Study Maine Forests with your students!
Create a Forest Inventory Growth (FIG) plot with your students at a nearby forest with a forester partner.

FIG training is offered to middle school and high school teachers.

Support for FIG is provided by the Maine TREE Foundation, the Maine Forest Service, the Maine Chapter of the Society of American Foresters, the Aristotle Fund, the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the International Paper Company Foundation and the Davis Conservation Foundation.

For more information regarding the FIG program or FIG training, contact Pat Maloney, Maine PLT State Coordinator at 207-626-7990 or email her at meplt@gwi.net

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New High School Curriculum

Maine Bioproducts and Biotechnology lessons, designed and developed by Maine teachers, provide five STEM related science, math and social studies units of study

Introducing Maine Forest Bioproducts and Biotechnology high school curriculum from Maine Project Learning Tree in collaboration with the Maine TREE Foundation, National PLT, The Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative (FBRI), and NSF/EPSCoR

http://forestbioproductslessons.org

The Maine Bioproducts and Biotechnology lessons, designed and developed by Maine teachers, provide STEM related science, math and social studies activities with resources, power points and direct connections to state of the art University of Maine research and to the most recent National PLT curriculum – Biotechnology and RISK.

Click here to review, download and use any or all of the five lessons:

Lesson One: What is Biotechnology?
Lesson Two: Biotechnology & Forest Bioproducts in Maine
Lesson Three: Bringing FBRI to the Classroom: Composites of the Future
Lesson Four: The “New Biotechnology” in Maine – Maintaining our Sense of Place in the World
Lesson Five: Systems and Life Cycle Analysis

Through the five hands-on lessons, students analyze, explore, discover, and learn about current research in alternative energy, lab experiments with wood fiber, stress and composite testing. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making are emphasized throughout the activities.

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Introducing the Maine School Forest Network

A statewide collaboration of teachers, schools and communities using the outdoors as an educational place based setting

A MAP OF MAINE'S SCHOOL FOREST SITES

Now you can explore the Google Map of Outdoor Classroom and Forest Inventory Growth (FIG) sites to learn how a growing group of teachers and communities connect students to the natural world around them. School Forest Programs throughout the country provide excellent examples of how a forest can be used as a natural resource to enhance learning about all aspects of nature and especially about the issues, ecology, and economics of natural habitats. A School Forest is really an outdoor classroom where teachers and students explore the natural world. The forest becomes a means of teaching core subjects such as math, science, reading, writing, geography, physical education, the arts and other subjects. School Forests can also be used as monitoring sites to measure conservation programs developed by the students.

In order to encourage schools and communities to participate we’ve developed a map with links to over 25 schools and communities where outdoor classrooms and/or FIG sites exist. After exploring the map and visiting some of the school websites, you may wish to consider becoming an active community involved with the network. Please contact Pat Maloney at 207 626-7990 or meplt@gwi.net with questions about this hands-on, authentic and place based educational approach to the world around us.