“Place-based education provides students with opportunities to connect with themselves, their community, and their local environment through hands-on, real-world learning experiences…. This approach enables students to see that their learning is relevant to their world, to take pride in the place in which they live, to connect with the rest of the world in a natural way, and to develop into concerned and contributing citizens.”
 
Jack Chin, Co-director, Funder’s Forum on Environment and Education
 
 
“Place-based education” is a relatively new term that describes key components of progressive education that have been in practice for more than 100 years. It is a term we use here at Touchstone Community School to describe one aspect of our overall progressive curriculum, and to demonstrate how we move from the words of our mission and philosophy to the actions taken by our students and teachers in the course of their educational journeys.
 
In its simplest terms, place-based education encompasses three primary goals:
 
            to connect children to the natural world around them by giving them regular, extended, and meaningful opportunities to learn by hands-on participation in outdoor educational activities,
 
            to provide experiences that teach children specifically about the area in which they live – from environmental, geographic, social, cultural, political and governmental perspectives,
 
            and to encourage children to take responsibility and leadership as engaged, pro-active citizens.
 
This approach to learning is inherently multidisciplinary and experiential. Recent examples from our school include:
 
            A field guide to the plants found on our school’s nature trail, written and illustrated by 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old students, for use by everyone who visits the trail.
 
            Voyage to the Sea, a video made by our middle school students, is designed both to educate children and adults about our local watershed and the water cycle as well as to encourage conservation.
 
            A class completing a unit of study on dogs and wolves raises money for a local no-kill dog shelter.