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Place-based Education (PBE):

  • Immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences;
  • Uses these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum; and
  • Emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community.

Stories From the Field:
Place-based education in action

Student with Chicken Chickens in the Classroom

An educator was teaching first graders a lesson about chickens when something unexpected—and extraordinary—happened: a little chicken leapt across a cultural divide.

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Research and Evaluation:
Making the case for place-based education

The Benefits of Place-based Education cover image Highlighted Reports
  • Benefits of Place-based Education
  • Closing the Achivement Gap
  • Quantifying a Relationship Between Place-Based Learning and Environmental Quality
  • Benefits of Nature for Children's Health, Fact Sheet #1

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The Network:
Place-based education in your community and around the world

Shelburne Farms Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms is an environmental education center, 1,400-acre working farm, and National Historic Landmark. Our mission is to cultivate a conservation ethic by teaching and demonstrating the stewardship of natural and agricultural resources.

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Calendar

Discovering Community: Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based Learning

June 27–July 1, 2011
The Institute offers participants handson experience learning the methods of community-based research, the process of making a documentary, and models for working with digital media in a classroom environment. Visit www.discoveringcommunity.org. Learn more about our faculty, look at unit plans and media projects from past participants, and access registration information. Or call (802) 388-4964. Learn to conduct audio interviews.

Workshops & Institutes Education for Sustainability (EFS) Institute

Tuesday-Thursday, August 2-4, 2011; 8:30 am-4:30 pm
Formal and non-formal educators nation-wide are using the idea of sustainability to connect student's learning experiences across the grades and disciplines so that they can meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Join fellow PreK-12 educators to build strategies and skills for using sustainability to connect curriculum, campus practices, and community engagement.

Project Seasons

Summer Workshop Monday–Friday, July 26–28, 2011 9:00 am-4:00 pm
Enrich your science curriculum with exciting, interdisciplinary, hands-on, and easy-to-use activities on environmental and agricultural topics. This workshop is designed to increase science literacy and cultivate connections by tracing the food we eat and the clothes we wear back to the farm.

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Vignette

School Yard Design Project

Students work with community organizations to create a master plan for their school grounds. They start with trail enhancement, parking lot bio-filter revitalization, outdoor classroom construction, and wetland system investigation. They create a vision for the property that integrate the interests of school and community

Monticello High School
Abernarle, VA


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