Place-based Learning

"Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum. Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their community, enhances students' appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. Community vitality and environmental quality are improved through the active engagement of local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources in the life of the school."

Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities
By David Sobel (2004: The Orion Society; www.oriononline.org)

Out and About School at B Street Farm

We began the school year at the B Street Permaculture Farm, a Pacific University-operated project on publicly owned land adjacent to Gales Creek. Our teachers took full advantage of the rich outdoor environment to explore themes of nature, garden and soil at the same time they began building classroom communities with students. Students made beautiful clay tiles using leaves collected by nearby trees, got their feet happily muddy creating bricks for a cob structure, designed nature journals and learned to sketch trees while sitting under the shady canopy. Farmers from Adelante Mujeres, a local Latina empowerment group, taught students about locally grown food and guided them in making salsa with tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos grown a few steps away. There were unexpected lessons about local issues as students learned that some people seek shelter in wooded areas of the city because they are homeless. We were treated to a concert by folk singer Dana Lyons in celebration of International Peace Day and learned the challenges and rewards of cooperation by practicing The Serpentine walk. Older students worked with younger ones to explore what peace means to each of us. In short, B Street was an intensive seven-day workshop on place-based learning, cooperation and community.

In-depth study of the local environment with real-world application of academic skills:

Charlie Graham and Veronica Dolby's classes of 9, 10 and 11 year old students, are deeply involved in a year-long exploration of trees that incorporates science, math, reading and writing. The classes were invited by the City of Forest Grove to participate in the city's survey of "significant trees," providing authentic data that the city will use in its official tree survey. Charlie's class is further developing its skills in scientific inquiry and data collection by raising Chinook salmon from eggs in a cold-water aquarium. Working with a community partner, The Association of Northwest Steelheaders, students will eventually release the small fry into a local stream, in the process learning about healthy stream habitats and environmental threats to native fish.

Fostering love of the natural world while developing basic skills:

Rachel Weil's and Sherry Reuter's classes of 6, 7 and 8 year olds have used the Ash Street Field, a plot of land stewarded by a Pacific University professor, as a second, outdoor classroom. In the field, students completed a Square of Life study, selecting and marking off a square meter of land to investigate. They used counting and categorizing skills to inventory the land for plants, animals and non-living objects. Students walked through the field in their stocking feet (a soil collection method) and held a "soil race" to measure soil permeability. They worked in small groups to locate a geo-cache using a GPS unit, discussing satellites, directions and travel skills.

Community Service:

John Sellers' and Megan Densky's classes of 12, 13 and 14 year olds removed an entire TON - 2,000 pounds! - of invasive English ivy from public land adjacent to Gales Creek on B Street in Forest Grove. This hard work provided much-needed breathing room for resident trees and resulted in a muddy but happy group of young stewards of the land.

The Out & About Program:

Gretchen Ziemer, our Place-Based Education Coordinator (a.k.a. the Out & About Teacher) works closely with classroom teachers to create active, hands-on learning in the local community that is tied to curriculum. Each class is "out and about" at least one time every week, rain or shine. In our first three months, places students have visited included the public library, the Tillamook State Forest, local parks, Pacific University and the community theater.

"Tell me,
and I will forget.
Show me,
and I may remember.
Involve me,
and I will understand."
-- Confucius