PLACE-BASED SCIENCE TEACHING

Connecting students to curriculum, community, and caring for our planet

A NEW BOOK COMING FROM CORWIN IN FALL 2025

🤔 How can educators design science learning that builds authentic, transformative opportunities for deepening engagement, strengthening the communities our schools serve, and actively developing problem-solving skills in the face of an uncertain future? 

🌊 How can we leverage the rich plurality of knowledge held by everyday people, both past and present, about the places we call home? 

🌱 And how can teachers begin today to support young people in making a difference, for each other and for generations to come? 

Place-Based Science Teaching, written by nationally recognized science teachers Whitney Aragaki and Kirstin Milks, offers a comprehensive exploration of place-based teaching in science education, presenting a reader-friendly, lesson-ready guide for classroom teachers, informal educators, and community partners. 

Inside the book, you'll find:

🎒lesson ideas, 

🤩 inspiring storytelling from K-12 STEM educators across the nation,

⚙️ through-lines to best practices like student-centered learning and project-based learning,

💭 insightful reflection prompts,

📚 accessible connections to education research, and

📍a novel framework that will dynamically support readers in creating learning activities and assessments designed specifically for their settings — all with the goal of co-constructing a more just, peaceful, and abundant future.

Featuring stories from amazing place-based educators:

 Mashfiq Ahmed • Sebastian Basualto • Natalia Alvarez Benjamin • Ramon Benavides Jr. • Abe Cohen-Garcia • Tanya Flores • David Kawika Gonzales Jr. • Enya Granados • Lauren Holomalia • Esther Kwon • Cerina Livaudais • Derek Minakami • tia north • Christopher Pike • Autumn Rivera • Jeremy Rouse •  Bill Stockton • Ronnie Vesnaver • Cat Walker 

Find #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching at

a national conference near you!

Field experiences: Blending digital learning with authentic outdoor education in biology Thursday, March 27 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Philadelphia Marriott Downtown - Grand Ballroom Salon H STRAND: #Trending in Science Education Show Details How can we leverage digital tools to support biology learning that’s authentic and engages with science practices and cross-cutting concepts? We’ll explore “sit spot” strategies that connect students to their local context and communities through digital tools and a place-based teaching framework. TAKEAWAYS: Participants will learn how implementing a “sit spot” assignment series can connect existing biology curricula to NGSS-aligned, place-based science explorations, as well as support student personal development and motivation, while overcoming the limitations of a traditional classroom experience. SPEAKERS: Kirstin Milks (Bloomington High School South: Bloomington, IN), Whitney Aragaki (Waiakea High School: Hilo, HI)
Place-based teaching: Expeditions in the Schoolyard Friday, March 28 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Philadelphia Marriott Downtown - Franklin 5 STRAND: Resilience in Teaching and Learning Show Details Place-based science teaching positions aspects of place–geographic location, geologic time, identity and community–at the forefront of science practices. This session will focus on the opportunities for place-based learning and teaching to explore our own locations: schoolyards and communities. TAKEAWAYS: Place-based learning honors the lived experiences of students and the living beings that form a community. Participants will learn how to implement a NGSS-aligned, place-based science lesson in their own space: schoolyard or community. SPEAKERS: Kirstin Milks (Bloomington High School South: Bloomington, IN), Whitney Aragaki (Waiakea High School: Hilo, HI)
Land Acknowledgements as Rigorous Science Learning Saturday, March 29 • 10:20 AM - 11:20 AM Pennsylvania Convention Center - 203 A STRAND: #Trending in Science Education Show Details Land Acknowledgements are an opportunity for students and teachers to undergo a common learning experience to uncover and expand their understanding of their shared place at school. This is an introductory session on Land Acknowledgements and their role in transformative science education. TAKEAWAYS: Participants will be guided in an overview of the research and crafting components of Land Acknowledgements that support equitable science teaching and create rigorous learning experiences for students. SPEAKERS: Kirstin Milks (Bloomington High School South: Bloomington, IN), Whitney Aragaki (Waiakea High School: Hilo, HI)

🌱 Want to learn more about field assignments? 🌱

Watch the introduction below, or click here for sample activities.

We've been so fortunate to learn from the Learning in Places Collaborative's wonderful resources on teaching histories and futures of place; click here to learn more about their work!

Learning in Places Collaborative (2021). Socio-ecological Histories of Places Framework. Learning in Places website. https://learninginplaces.org/frameworks/socio-ecological-histories-of-places-framework/ 

About the authors:

WHITNEY ARAGAKI, Ph.D. is an educator, parent, and learner from Hilo, Hawaiʻi.  She supports students to learn through a lens of abundance that honors place, people and cultures. Her teaching focuses around conversations, practices and systems that sustain the intimate inter-relationship of public education, community and environment. Whitney is a fifth-generation Hawaiʻi Island resident of Japanese ancestry. She is the daughter of two educators, and was a student in her mother’s biology class. She currently serves as a high school science teacher at her alma mater, Waiākea High School and as a Professor of Practice and Faculty Lead at Reach University. Her two children also thrive in this supportive public-school ecosystem. Whitney has a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Swarthmore College, a Master of Science in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Education from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Education. Whitney, a National Board Certified Teacher, is the 2022 Hawaiʻi State Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year Finalist. She is a 2021 Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and a 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leader. Learn more about Whitney's work here.

KIRSTIN J. MILKS, Ph.D. teaches AP Biology and introductory science at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Indiana, where she also serves as a STEM team coach and mentor. Kirstin loves collaborating with students and community members to learn together in inclusive and responsive environments, as well as supporting and making public the work of teaching and learning; her goal is to help youth build a just and sustainable world. A graduate of Stanford University’s Schools of Medicine (PhD) and Education (MA), she is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellow, the 2025 president of the National Association of Biology Teachers, her Girl Scout council's Leader of the Year, and a Senior Fellow at the Knowles Teacher Initiative. She’s worked with organizations including the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the College Board, SXSW EDU, Educating for Environmental Change, and schools across the country to envision, engineer, and enact the future of education, with a focus on humane and socially-responsive science teaching. When she’s not teaching or volunteering with Girl Scouts, Kirstin enjoys visiting the local library with her family, practicing all-ages taekwondo, and singing along at top volume to local radio. Learn more about Kirstin's work here.