Greetings from the top of the forest! I am Jacquie Bradburn, one of the teachers who have visited the forest canopy in Carson, Washington to bring a “Tree-Mendous” Electronic Field Trip to you and your students. That’s me in the back of the crane gondola. The old-growth forest there is awe-inspiring. Imagine standing next to a tree that has been rooted in the same spot for 300 years; or even more amazing, riding in a crane and looking down on this tree! We are so excited to bring this special place to your classroom.

Our teachers have been busily preparing and testing lesson plans for you to download from the teacher section of the EFT tree website. The web guys are planning some exciting educational games and activities for your kids on the student side of the site, and our producer has some amazing plans for the broadcast! We are thrilled to have this space to tell you all about our plans so that you can schedule “tree time” into your classroom. Whether you have a couple of hours or a couple of weeks to spend with us, we know you will find our standards-based curriculum worthwhile.

Our website for students and teachers will officially “launch” on February 7, 2006. Look for an email from us with your login name and password in early February. Until then, we thought you might like some tips and advice on how to best use the plethora of material we will be throwing at you!

 

An Electronic Field Trip is the sum of many parts. It's an interactive educational experience that makes the rich content of our nation's parks and museums available to kids.

It's a website. We create a website full of games and activities that help kids learn the content. Read more

It's lessons for the classroom. A group of professional teachers work on each field trip to develop extensive standards-based, grade-appropriate lessons for teachers. Read more

It's a live TV show. A month after the website is launched, we hit the road and broadcast two live, 90-minute broadcasts. Read more

Using the website
Each of our field trips has a teacher side and a student side. The student side is designed to educate your students about the content in a fun, interactive way. It is completely self-guided. Put them on our site and let them go! We recommend that you schedule computer time now. It is ideal if your can give your students 5 sessions of 40 minutes each to get through all of the material we present. If you can’t give them that much time, do what you can and send them home with the URL, login, and password and they can explore on their computer at home.

Click on the picture of Jeff Mohl, our web manager, to hear more about this EFT website.

Downloading the lesson plans
Once our site launches, you will be able to download 12+ lesson plans designed for students in grades 3 -8. The lessons come with PDFs for you to download as well. National standards are listed for each lesson. These plans were written and tested by real teachers, with the assistance of some of the most well respected experts in the field. You won’t find impractical ideas or incomplete lessons. We include science lessons (of course) but you will also find writing, reading, math, speaking, group work, technology, and life skills lessons too.

Click on my picture to hear more about integrating our curriculum into your classroom.

The live television broadcast
The broadcast ties together the material that your students will learn on the website and in your classroom lessons. Students watch a live, 90-minute program directly from the site of the field trip! Students, who have spent time learning from the same experts you will see on-air, are the hosts of the show. Since the broadcast is live, we are able to offer the opportunity for students in your class to call in and ask questions of our experts. Our viewers can also send questions in via an online discussion forum.

Click on the picture of Brandon Smith, our show producer, to hear more about the broadcast.

Suggested calendar to make the most of your EFT experience January Think about natural or forested places in your area that would be interesting for visiting and conducting simple experiments Make contact with an area forester, forest ranger, or other tree expert to speak to your class in Feb. or March about the value of trees Reserve computer lab time to use after site launches on Feb. 7 Make sure you are set to receive broadcast from cable provider, satellite, PBS, or Internet Find a rotting log or create your own with a 2’X2” piece of untreated plywood. Put the plywood in a natural area to “rot.” Contact a tree trimmer, local utility company, county or state forester about getting a few “tree cookies” (cross sections of logs 7” or greater in diameter) If you have money from your PTO or some other source, buy each student an activity book called Ancient Forests by Margaret Anderson, Nancy Field, and Karen Stephenson. EFT teachers get 20% off by ordering directly from the publisher at (888) 364-3277. February Start your class on student side of website when it launches on Feb. 7 Read the lessons on the teacher side of the website. Decide which ones you want to do and pencil them in your plan book. Go to your school or community library and check out Ancient Ones: The World of the Old Growth Douglas Fir by Barbara Bash Get supplies listed on lesson plans when site launches Start plants growing in your classroom for experiments Begin teaching the lessons you choose March Have guest speaker in your classroom Continue teaching lessons Take a forest field trip, if possible Prepare “Your Turn!” activities for show day Confirm viewing method (cable, PBS, satellite or Internet) Watch EFT broadcast on March 7 at 11:00 or 1:00 Eastern (New York) time The tree website will stay up forever (or longer) so you are welcome to visit anytime AFTER the broadcast as well. Use the show as your starting point! Watch for an email from me at the end of January with more information and a supply list for the lesson plans.