Place-based education is relevant, engaging, and made to stick. The purpose is to bring the local community into the classroom and the classroom out into the community. This encourages student engagement, increases retention of material, broadens student perspectives and experiences, and builds student confidence that they can make a difference.

By starting with the individual student and their interests and backgrounds, we then build on what is happening around us in an ever growing circle outwards. This focus of starting where we are at here and now engages the student in what they know and can touch. 

Project-based learning starts with a question or issue. Students express their interests, concerns, or curiosities to help drive the essential question of a project. Local fires lead to project on fire ecology. Snow on the ground leads to a project on motion and forces. A love for animals leads to a dive into habitats and local flora and fauna. By starting with student’s interest and moving towards an end in mind, students become the stewards and problem solvers, inspiring them to develop critical thinking skills and understand the impact they can have in their community.

A project-based, place-based approach to learning unifies all core subjects into a meaningful way for students to develop important skills while gaining academic skills, setting them up to tackle any future challenges or career paths.