Bourke and AUM Recognized as Alabama PLT Education Partner of the Year

Montgomery – Alabama Project Learning Tree (PLT) recently named Auburn University Montgomery as the 2019 Alabama PLT Education Partner of the Year. Through the continuous efforts of Dr. Nicholas Bourke, College of Education students receive training in the PLT curriculum. “We are pleased to recognize Dr. Bourke and AUM for their efforts in preparing future educators,” shares Monica Ousley, AMSTI science coordinator and PLT Steering Committee member. “With its application, PLT curriculum builds science content knowledge through integrated, cross-curricular instruction. Our collaboration with AUM is a win-win for AUM students and PLT.”

Aligned with current academic standards, PLT develops students’ knowledge, skills, and appreciation of the environment. Lesson plans and activities incorporate into existing curriculum and provide an excellent way to integrate STEM into the classroom. “We offer the PLT curriculum to our College of Education students at Auburn University at Montgomery as the curriculum provides our students with engaging and motivating curriculum materials,” says Bourke. “The units of instruction help elementary students develop understanding of environmental content. Our AUM students report they use the PLT curriculum in their classrooms after graduating and find the materials meet their needs as classroom teachers. The PLT curriculum is research based and classroom tested, to the fact that our AUM graduates use the materials in their classrooms is not a surprise.”

For more information about Project Learning Tree, please visit www.plt.org.  Contact Ashley Smith at [email protected] to schedule a PLT training.

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Project Learning Tree® (www.plt.org) is the environmental education program of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Inc. PLT provides educators with comprehensive environmental education curriculum resources that can be integrated into lesson plans for all grades and subject areas. Developed in 1976, PLT has an international network of more than 500,000 trained educators using PLT materials that cover the total environment.  Alabama Forestry Foundation serves as the state sponsor in Alabama.

From left to right:
Ashley Smith: Education Director, Alabama Forestry Foundation / Alabama Project Learning Tree Coordinator
Nicholas Bourke: AUM Associate Professor, College of Education
Monica Ousley: AMSTI Science Coordinator Alabama State Department of Education