🌲 What can you learn from the forest? 🌳

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Alternative Education Association of Maine Spring Conference, which had a theme of "Resilience for All." 

I was asked to share project-based learning opportunities, but before diving into activities, I used Mentimeter to poll the audience to determine what subjects are most challenging to incorporate into their programs. 

The results? 📊 

Math was ranked most challenging by the most educators, which is not at all surprising. What is surprising is that each Science, Social Studies, English/Language Arts, and Other was highlighted by multiple educators as the most challenging. 

This is a common trend that I hear from educators Maine TREE works with. They lack the time and resources to cover all the subjects they are tasked with. 

That's where forest-based education comes in. 🌲 

Throughout the session, educators participated in activities that tied content areas together, using a mix of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative's Project Learning Tree (PLT) Curriculum and custom Maine TREE activities and programs, including our Forest Ecology Research Network.

We started by developing an understanding of our perspectives on environmental and forestry topics, adapting PLT's 'Decisions, Decisions' activity, which has strong social studies connections. We then tied Art and Science together through 'The Closer You Look', which incorporates drawing time as we look into the characteristics of a specific tree species. Then, after incorporating the Math through the data collection protocols of the Forest Ecology Research Network, we brought it all together by having the educators rate the values they would prioritize if they had the opportunity to make management decisions on a forest, based on PLTs 'If You Were the Boss'

While we only had 50 minutes together, all the subject areas came through in an actionable way for the educators. My favorite comment from the audience was: "I could base an entire semester on this!"

This experience reiterated to me why I am so passionate about the work we do at Maine TREE. Regardless of the subject area, we can help educators provide students with opportunities to learn from the forest. Bringing it all back to the theme of the conference, Resilience for Forests, Communities, Educators and Students, is...

Resilience for All. 🌱