The NCASI Foundation, in partnership with NCASI staff and Virginia 4-H outdoor learning sites, developed three lesson plans focused on forestry concepts. The lesson plans form an interwoven outdoor experience that touches on the concepts of:

• What is a tree farm and why do we need them to provide products?
• Why do we need young, middle age, and old-growth forests for increased biodiversity?
• What types of land covers are needed for different uses?

The outdoor lessons build on classroom teaching, including PLT lessons, and align with STEM and Standards of Learning requirements. The lessons were piloted at the Virginia 4-H sites summer and fall of 2022.

About the ChLOE program –
The ChLOE (Children Learning through Outdoor Experiences) program is unique in its goal of providing outdoor anchoring experiences for K-12 STEM curricula using real agricultural practices as examples of STEM principles. It provides well-planned, structured, and organized learning experiences involving animal husbandry, row crop agriculture, streams, lakes, wetlands, and forests.

The ChLOE program partners with and supports teachers by providing hands-on experiences that help students better understand how concepts taught in the classroom matter in real life. They do not seek to add or change classroom curricula. Rather, ChLOE creates out-of-classroom experiences that complement the curriculum taught in the classroom and help students understand how and what they learn in school is important in solving real-life problems.  For many reasons, agriculture and natural resources are great vehicles for illustrating these.

ChLOE is working to catalyze more sites and help develop programs and activities at those sites. It is envisioned that these sites will be developed nationally and expand the content to include forestry, wood products, wildlife, and other related areas. NCASI Foundation is collaborating on adding these content areas with new partners.