Place-based Teaching: Expeditions in the Schoolyard

Outline

Total Time: 60 minutes
Introductions & Opening Stories (10 minutes)
Co-presenters will share personal introductions as well as their personal background and stories related to identity, community, and learning experiences. Participants will be asked to reflect on their stories as it relates to their sense of community and belonging.

Place-Based & Community Learning Overview and Participant Connection (15 minutes)
Co-presenters will share the inspiration behind this session along with their expertise and experience as it relates to place-based learning.
Participants will have an opportunity to share their goals and experiences with place-based learning.

Ideas, Illustrations, and Impact (20 minutes)
Co-presenters will introduce a framework for Place-Based Science Teaching that will dynamically support science teachers in (re)envisioning and creating learning activities that respond to the historical and present contexts of students within a classroom, while integrating rigorous science practices and phenomena.

Mentorship & Networking (15 minutes)
Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss their learning with the co-presenters in addition to engaging in general networking with the co-presenters.

Supporting research

Place-Based Social Studies Education: Learning from Flint, Michigan by Annie McMahon Whitlock (Teachers College Press, 2024).
The Power of Place by Tom Vander Ark, Emily Leibtag, and Nate McClennen (ASCD, 2020).
Place-Based Scientific Inquiry: A Practical Handbook for Teaching Outside by Benjamin Wong Blonder, Ja'Nya Banks, Austin Cruz, Anna Dornhaus, R. Keating Godfrey, Joshua S. Hoskinson, Rebecca Lipson, Pacifica Sommers, Christy Stewart, Alan Strauss (Routledge, 2023).