Discovering PLACE

What makes a good place-based education project?

As teachers know, place-based education often starts with looking around and seeing how students can learn through projects in their own local environment or community.

PBE doesn’t stop there, though. Teachers put lots of thought into how projects will connect with their school or district’s primary academic objectives and how habits of mind will be developed. Ultimately, place-based learning creates strong connections between students and their surroundings to develop a sense of stewardship within youth.

At the March 21 Discovering PLACE workshop, educators will not only designing projects around required curriculum, they will brainstorm ways to help students develop habits of mind and stewardship through PBE.

Rebecca Nielsen, of Nielsen Education Consulting, will be guiding teachers through these concepts during the upcoming professional development session. Teachers, this is a can’t-miss opportunity to work hands-on with an environmental education expert. RSVP today!

Discovering PLACE is a program of University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. One of eight hubs of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the program aims to help students develop into Flint community and environmental stewards. Working with Flint-area teachers and community partners, Discovering PLACE supports place-based education projects to help students connect with their surroundings.

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As our Discovering PLACE teachers work through developing projects, here’s a fantastic list of top 10 tips that may help. This list was compiled by Jon Yoder, of Salem-Keizer School District, who spoke at the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative’s 2011 conference on place-based education.

Teachers, please remember to e-mail your project development worksheets by this Friday, March 2.

Discovering PLACE is a program of University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. One of eight hubs of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the program aims to help students develop into Flint community and environmental stewards. Working with Flint-area teachers and community partners, Discovering PLACE supports place-based education projects to help students connect with their surroundings.

“Like” the University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint page on Facebook to follow our updates, or sign up for a free subscription to this blog by clicking the link at the top right corner of this page!

It takes more than a good idea to implement your Discovering PLACE project.

Right now, we’re asking teachers to spend time thinking through their projects – starting with their district’s primary objectives, curriculum areas students are interested in, and curriculum standards. We’re also asking teachers to think how projects can benefit the local environment or community, who they will partner with, and – because partnerships must be mutually beneficial – how the project will benefit their partners.

Our projects, of course, are intended to develop community stewards among students, so we’re asking you to think about how, exactly, your project will develop stewardship. You also need to be clear about how the project will be sustained, especially if it’s a long-term project, or one that will continue throughout the summer months. Think too about how the project can be adapted for other curriculum subjects, as well as other grades, before moving on to listing what you need for the project.

Working through these questions on the project development worksheet is essential not only for your own planning, but for Discovering PLACE to respond to your needs, including providing relevant professional development.

Kudos to our teachers who have already completed this assignment.

Planning takes time, and you don’t need all the answers right now, but it is a requirement that at least some of your worksheet be completed and e-mailed by this Friday, March 2.

Discovering PLACE is a program of University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. One of eight hubs of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the program aims to help students develop into Flint community and environmental stewards. Working with Flint-area teachers and community partners, Discovering PLACE supports place-based education projects to help students connect with their surroundings.

“Like” the University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint page on  Facebook to follow our updates.

When our Discovering PLACE teachers and partners walked into last Thursday’s workshop, I detected a note of surprise. We had promised landscape planning would be part of the afternoon’s workshop.

What they saw was a group of grad students in jeans, army-like jackets, and knit caps. The landscape architects they’d be working with were so young.

But who’s better suited to share vibrant ideas? Who has more up-to-the-minute info than students? Teachers, partners and students became so immersed in planning we barely convinced them to eat.

The room surged with creative energy. Laptops were open, photos thumbed through, tables were layered in schoolyard maps and tracing paper. Markers and pencils in hand, participants in the design charrette plotted dreams of projects that would engage students, connect youth with their surroundings and teach curriculum in a memorable way.

The 3-hour workshop left participants asking for more. While few remembered to fill out survey cards, feedback was unanimously positive. One teacher even e-mailed later to say, “those students were gems.”

What was especially great about this workshop was our teachers and partners were not only planning place-based education, but experiencing it.

Given the chance, students from K-12 through grad school can make very real contributions. Engaging in authentic problem-solving also affords students real-world learning experiences, prompting them to recall and use information, and explore questions that may not arise in the classroom.

The grad students may be young, but at the end of the day, their insights were invaluable.

It’s easy to see why this kind of engagement leads to stewardship. Most of us are more motivated to care about needs around us than hypothetical problems. Plus, when students work on actual issues, they feel genuinely appreciated for what they can do.

Engagement and appreciation is empowering. Ultimately, it’s where stewardship begins.

Thanks to the UM-Ann Arbor grad students and the Flint Children’s Museum for making this workshop possible!

Discovering PLACE is a program of University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. One of eight hubs of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the program aims to help students develop into Flint community and environmental stewards. Working with Flint-area teachers and community partners, Discovering PLACE supports place-based education projects to help students connect with their surroundings.

“Like” the University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint page on  Facebook to follow our updates.

There are plenty of reasons for our Discovering PLACE teachers to be at the Feb. 16 workshop! Which is why you’ll want to RSVP today (if you haven’t done so already).

Top 5 reasons to go:

5. Borrow great books from our lending library

4. Learn about a mini-project opportunity

3. Free tour of the Flint Children’s Museum and info on their educational programming

2. Free food (tropical meal!) and free environmental landscape architecture consultation!!!

1. You can tell your boss you’re actually developing your project (and one step closer to getting grant funds)!

Details and RSVP info here.

Note: This workshop is optional for partners.

Discovering PLACE is a program of University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint. One of eight hubs of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the program aims to help students develop into Flint community and environmental stewards. Working with Flint-area teachers and community partners, Discovering PLACE supports place-based education projects to help students connect with their surroundings.

“Like” the University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint page on  Facebook to follow our updates.