These fresh-water tributaries are the life line to the state's forest environment and a key area in which to start educating the public about Georgia's vast resources. Students are trained by Irwin in a nine-hour program to become certified PLT educators. More than 80 university students have been certified since the inception of the outreach program in summer of 1997. We can still teach math, we can still teach science, we can still teach language arts with these programs - it is just in a different way of delivering the information. Irwin says the teacher-student ratio for PLT lessons should be about two university students per 30 school children.
Lessons vary in length, subject matter and education level.
The topic index of the PLT activity guide lists categories that include animal and plant adaptations, solar energy and the urban environment. A teacher might suggest to a certified PLT student6 that tree identification would fit in with the class's curriculum for that week. In PLT's activities for science and physical education, students can learn about tree populations and biological diversity, and develop tree-identification skills by looking at various structural characteristics like leaves, bark, twigs and seeds to identify several tree types. Symma Rich, a first-grade teacher at Cleveland Road Elementary School in Bogart, Ga., used the PLT program to help her class learn about tree growth by identifying and studying growth. The class focused on growth rings on tree trunks.