Putting You in Your PLACE: Place Learning for Civic Engagement

• In Event: Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations and Stagnations in Science and Environmental Education

Abstract

Place Learning And Civic Engagement is a three-year professional development program for elementary teachers created by a non-profit science school and a Rocky Mountain University The focus of the program is elementary school science and making the science curriculum more connected to the places that the teachers and elementary age children call home. The PLACE program focuses on science content as well as science as inquiry and is based on 10 place based principles. This study analyzes how participating teachers came to understand and implement place-based education. Data comes from pre-post assessments, portfolio analysis, and focus group interviews. Teachers grew in their knowledge and implementation of place-based education.

Authors

• Kate Muir Welsh, University of Wyoming

• Leslie Cook, Teton Science Schools