Generous grants from the Xcel Energy Foundation and Covanta Energy will allow two schools to participate in Tree Trust’s Learning with Trees program during the 2010-2011 school year.
This fall/winter Somerset Elementary School (Mendota Heights, MN) and Nellie Stone Johnson Community School (Minneapolis, MN) will work with Community Forestry Manager Karen Zumach to form green teams of teachers, parents and school administrators. Over the course of the next several months the green teams will identify ways to transform their existing grounds into living laboratories that provide hands-on learning experiences for their students, and also provide natural environmental benefits to the local community.
In the spring each school will participate in Tree Trust’s interactive Our Town Trees exhibit, where students will learn about the benefits of trees and build a conceptual framework for the students’ planting experience at all-school events that will occur near the end of the school year. During the events, Tree Trust’s trained volunteers will lead groups of students through the entire process of planting trees. The students will be assigned various roles - digger, planter, mulcher, waterer - and make each green teams’ landscape plans a reality.
Teachers from each school will also be provided with a “tree trunk” of lesson plans and tools to use with students to incorporate environmental education both inside the classroom and in their new outdoor learning area.
Thanks to our sponsors – Xcel Energy Foundation and Covanta Energy- for helping us bring Learning with Trees to two new schools!
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