Project Learning Tree (PLT) is an environmental education (EE) initiative of the non-profit Sustainable Forest Initiative. PLT provides parents and educators with activities and resources to help engage their students in learning about the environment while focusing on trees. One helpful resource, the k-8 activity guide, contains 50 hands-on activities that develop student’s awareness and knowledge of their natural environment. This essay evaluates one activity, Peek at Packaging, in reference to the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAEE) Guidelines for Materials Excellence. Peek at packaging will be assessed on six key characteristics outlined in the NAEE guidelines: fairness and accuracy, depth, emphasis on skill building, action orientation, instructional soundness, and usability.
The activity presented in the PLT activity guide, peek at packaging, is delivered in six steps. Educators introduce the idea of packaging and discuss the purposes of packaging. Next, the educator introduces the class to examples of packaging. Students observe and analyze a package. The student’s analysis leads to a discussion on the environmental impacts of packaging. Students use their analysis and discussion to identify properties of ideal packaging. The activity ends with an opportunity for students to design and present an ideal package for an example product.
The activity peek at packaging addresses the first key characteristic, fairness and accuracy, by outlining related environmental issues with accuracy, attempting to provide a variety of perspectives, and being open to inquiry. The PLT activity guide proves the factual accuracy of its activities by citing content experts and practitioner reviewers at the beginning of the book. The activity is written with language that is simple and appropriate for an educational setting. Peek at packaging introduces a variety of values and uses for packaging. Most perspectives presented in the activity align with a dominant narrative of education. The activity mostly discusses packaging coming from conventional stores, supermarkets, and ecommerce. To diversify perspectives, the activity could address packaging derived from a wider variety of commerce outlets like street vendors, restaurants, local markets, or food trucks. Finally, both the student-centered, and observational nature of the activity make it a great opportunity for students to ask questions and inquire about effective packaging. Depth, the second key characteristic outlined in the NAEE Guidelines for Materials Excellence, is determines through awareness of the natural and build environment, presenting unifying themes over facts, contextualizing concepts, and beginning to address scales. Awareness of the natural and built environment is developed through opportunities to observe and analyze packaging. Discussions of the environmental impact of packaging can increase awareness of interconnections among living beings. The activity focuses on unifying themes and concepts over facts by encouraging students to occasionally zoom out and view packaging’s economic or environmental impact. Similarly, the activity does a decent job of providing context for large concepts. The background section of the activity provides some historical context for the evolution of packaging. The activity could be improved if the educator explicitly connects broader environmental issues to concepts such as greenwashing or systems of waste removal. This activity provides increased relevance if students are encouraged to bring in their own packaging. Finally, the activity briefly introduces scales of production and how they have evolved. Introducing time scales around decomposition, composting, and recycling would increase the students’ understanding of environmental processes and the impact of packaging.
Peek at packaging emphasizes skill-building through developing critical and creative thinking skills, starting to develop action skills, and applying skills to problems. Critical thinking skills are developed by analyzing packaging and synthesizing principles of good packaging. Designing an ideal packaging is an opportunity for students to exercise creative thinking processes. The activity begins to develop students action skills by teaching about consumer action. Educators should explicitly introduce the power that consumers have when deciding where to spend their money. The final design component to the peek at packaging activity is a great opportunity for students to practice creating their own solutions to an issue.
The fourth key characteristic, action orientation, is only implicitly addressed in the activity peek at packaging. The first part of action orientation, sense of personal stake and responsibility, should be explicitly addressed by educators. While students may begin to think about their choices as a consumer, educators should guide students to discuss appropriate levels of responsibility considering the age of the students. Self-efficacy is the second aspect of action orientation. The activity presented in the PLT activity guide does not address self-efficacy of students. Educators should add space to discuss or create collective action strategies related to sustainable packaging.
Peek at packaging uses numerous instructional techniques to foster a healthy leaning environment. The activity prioritizes learners by adapting to fit students’ interests. One example is that the principles for an ideal package will be based on the analysis of packaging done in the moment by students. The activity is outlined while remaining flexible which allows for differentiation of teaching. Next, connection and relevance to the students' lives will increase engagement. The activity is largely connected to students’ lives, and they encounter or make decisions about packaging every day. Within the activity there is an option to expand the learning environment with a scavenger hunt style activity looking for packaging at a supermarket. Peek at packaging is an appropriate activity for students in grades 3-5 and can be adapted for students in grades 6-8. Example variations include introducing the concept of circular economy, creating flowcharts, and including more discussion and research opportunities. Finally, the activity includes multiple opportunities to formatively assess students in discussions and a summative assessment on the design of the newly created packaging.
The last key characteristic, usability, describes the quality of design for the activity. First, the overall structure of the activity is clearly outlined and extremely easy for an educator to follow. The materials for peek at packaging are all available in the PLT activity guide. All worksheets and notes for teachers are readily available in the guide. Also, the materials for the activity (packaging) are cheap, available, and can be reused after the lesson is complete. The accessibility of materials helps make the lesson adaptable to any cultural background. The idea of packaging may look varied in different places, but the larger concepts behind the activity remain relevant to everyone. Next, PLT offers professional development opportunities that can improve educators use of their resources and activities. New activities in the PLT activity guide are pilot tested before inclusion in the final publication. Finally, at the end of each activity, there is a section outlining how the activity achieves academic standards in science, English and social studies.
The area for most improvement in the peek at packaging activity is action orientation and developing action skills. The activity needed to have more explicit opportunities to identify personal stake and responsibility and build self-efficacy. Including a section at the end of the activity for students to address issues of packaging at their school would introduce students to environmental advocacy an develop action orientation and action skills. One way to do this would be asking students to identify an area in their school where there is too much packaging. The educator should then guide students to consider ways to make changes and what power the students have within their school.
The activity, peek at packaging, outlined in the PLT activity guide, was mostly aligned with the six key characteristics of the NAEE Guidelines for Materials Excellence. The activity presented credible information but could have included more perspectives specifically related to consumerism. Context and key concepts related to environmental issues fostered a depth of awareness in how packaging relates to the natural and built environment. Peek at packaging developed critical and creative thinking processes but could do a better job of developing action skills. The activity could be modified to explicitly include action orientation. The structure of the activity and opportunities to differentiate can also increase instructional soundness. Finally, the activity is presented in an extremely usable format.