New Hampshire Project Learning Tree

Connecting Schools to People and Place (CS2P)

A national movement is building for schools to focus their reform initiatives around the environment.  Results of this approach show that using the environment as an integrating context positively affects academic achievement, classroom behavior, and instructional practices. 

In New Hampshire, much of the emphasis for meeting reform goals is on professional development strategies for teachers.  Connecting Schools to People and Place (CS2P) is designed as a model school improvement program, based on the environment and focused on sustained and intensive professional development.  A three-year partnership between NHPLT and a single school, the goal of CS2P is to train faculty and staff in environmental education and best teaching practices, to integrate environmental education into the curriculum school-wide, and to create a local network of people and places to support an environment-focused curriculum.

In January 2003, NH Project Learning Tree launched CS2P with Woodsville Elementary School. This three year partnership demonstrated many positive outcomes for both the students and the community of Woodsville as documented in an external evaluation performed by the Place-based Education Evaluative Collaborative (PEEC).

Currently, NHPLT is working in partnership with the Bicentennial Elementary School in Nashua, NH, the second New Hampshire School to participate in the CS2P program. Much has been accomplished since the spring of 2008 including the building of an outdoor classroom. This outdoor space was created thanks to the hard work, enthusiasm and donations of time and materials from many school and community members. Every child in the school was involved and this outdoor learning environment is now being used by teachers from every discipline from science to math to language arts. Support for integrating environmental education into the school’s curriculum is provided by Erin Hollingsworth, NHPLT’s education coordinator, who works with the teachers and students each week during the school year.

The Connecting Schools to People and Place program is made possible with funding by the American Forest Foundation, the Dorr Foundation, the Nashua Region of the NH Charitable Foundation, Adapx, Bicentennial Elementary School, and Liakos Real Estate.

Articles about CS2P

February 2009 - Outdoor Learning Takes Place Year Round at Bicentennial Elementary School
    
October 2008 - A Tree at Their Window: First Grade Students Adopt a Tree

June 2008 - Outdoor Classroom Dedicated at the Bicentennial School as Part of NHPLT's Connecting Schools to People and Place Program (CS2P)

For more information about CS2P contact at NHPLT.