Place-based Education

What is it?

Place-based education is integrating the local community and environment into science instruction. It can deal with issues the community, teachers, and students themselves identify with. Students investigate and explore real-world concepts that are usually local.

Why should you use it?

Using place-based education creates equity in science instruction. This means that all students have an equal chance to be successful because the content is based upon local places, experiences, or communities. Students are able to apply science and engineering to their everyday lives in their homes and communities. This helps create authentic learning experiences that are not abstract.

How do teachers generally use it?

There are so many ways to use place-based education in science instruction. Here are some ways teacher generally use it:

Investigation or exploration of real-world concepts
Exploring and making observations of local areas.
Solving or exploring issues that the students or community face.
Through hands-on and inquiry based learning.
As local phenomena that can sustain a PBL.

Below you will find two examples of how you can use place-based education

Local Habitat Tour

In this local habitat tour, students will explore local habitats. Each scene contains points of interest that include inquiry based questions. This aligns to this 3rd grade science standard: 3-LS4-3. However, you could easily create a local habitat Google Tour to adapt to other grade level's standards.

Click here to learn more about this local habitat tour.

School's Energy Use

In this example, student explore the problem of energy waste in their school. Students will collect data the amount of energy their schools uses. Then they will design a plan for improvement. This aligns to the engineering standards of most grade levels.

Click here to view the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Standards.

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