Teaching Responsible Earth Education TREE

Programs

1. Earthkeepers is a 3-day program where students travel each day to a forested area outside of the city of New Orleans and earn K.E.Y.S. symbolizing the steps of their journey. Participants earned their K (Knowledge) and E (Experience) keys by engaging in activities such as following Slippery Sally, a water speck (molecule) on adventures through the water cycle. They connected with nature through immersive activities like finding, naming, and describing the perfect wind dancer, a leaf dropped for all to see how it distinctively floats through the air. When students return to school they earn their Y and S (Yourself and Sharing) keys by 1) reducing the amount of energy and materials they use or waste; (2) sharing their knowledge and experiences with younger students, family members and friends; and (3) continuing to experience the wonders of the world through solitude, observation, discovery, and writing. There were 323 public school students (10 non-public), 42 teachers, and 45 parent volunteers who participated in Earthkeepers over the fiscal year.

   $144,382 spent$44,810 earned by the program
   30% of program spending

2. Sunship Earth is a 5-day and 4-night 5th grade program, where students are immersed in the natural environment, and are able to directly observe and apply the science concepts being taught. The program has a playful and engaging framework guiding children from one experience to the next. Students receive a "passport" that allows their travels on and off trail at the Study Station, an outdoor classroom in a bottomland hardwood forest about 50 miles north of New Orleans. Participants engage in 35 hands-on activities including when they climb inside of a leaf and create a molecule that is needed to trigger photosynthesis (energy flow). And they become coyotes and must come up with independent strategies like camouflage or speediness to catch the one mouse available for dinner (interrelationships). Upon returning to city life, participants pledge to reduce their impact on energy or materials and have several opportunities to work on changing their habits regarding their enjoyment and protection of the natural world. There were 157 public school students, 5 teachers, and 29 parent volunteers who participated in Sunship Earth over the school year.

   $141,018 spent$67,050 earned by the program
   29% of program spending

3. Lost Treasures is a school-based science education program for elementary students that was piloted by T.R.E.E in 2020. About 165 third grade children, 80% of which are minority and/or economically disadvantaged, benefited from alternative methods of science education becoming environmentally literate, improving academically, and understanding their ability to affect positive changes in their personal lives. The main objective of this project is to establish an empowering, school curriculum-integrated environmental education program for younger students propelling their awareness of problems like climate change and the injustices they create. Children become characters in their own story where they receive proclamations to challenge themselves and work together and discover tasks in a life-sized treasure chest in their classroom. They learn about the Animal, Mineral and Plant Kingdoms and how they interact and depend on ecosystems. There were 165 public school children and 15 teachers participating in the fiscal year.

   $101,666 spent$23,274 earned by the program
   21% of program spending

4. Sunship III occurs over 3 days and 2 nights for 7th graders, deepening their life science understanding and focus on implications of decisions that affect their personal lives and their communities. To start, each 7th grader receives enough solarians rather than dollars, to pay for their use of necessary resources like water, food, and electricity. They keep a checkbook which they must balance each day as they decide how to best spend their resources. They have tough decisions to make regarding desires rather than needs; like using a hair dryer or ordering the works on their pizza, especially when they realize how much these items actually cost to use, make and transport to the user. The follow-through component connects youth to sustainability leaders in the areas where they live. They pledge to interview at least one person to find out how they practice living and working more lightly on the Earth. Sunship III, like each of T.R.E.E.s programs, addresses 3 main needs. One is that New Orleans area children need educational opportunities that achieve superior levels of learning in science. Second, children need to understand how their environment functions, and that it is…

   $97,182 spent$53,640 earned by the program
   20% of program spending

5. Community Programs and Earthwalks are included in the total expenses and revenue of Other Programs. -Metairie Country Day Summer Camp (CDCA) hires a T.R.E.E. educator(s) to create and implement multi-week programs for 8- 14-year-old campers.

The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $484,248.