Place-based education helps students learn to take care of the world by understanding where they live and taking action in their own backyard and communities. (The Benefits of Place-Based Education: A Report from the Place Based Education Evaluation Collaborative).
This morning at the Inside Outside School, Rashid is working with students to plant a Fall garden. The cool morning offers a multi-sensory feast with the feel of the dirt, the passing traffic noises of a rural country road, the weight of the different garden tools, the proximity of other children, the smell of the earth, the balancing their bodies must do to work on uneven ground. The children work together to prepare the soil and are challenged to solve problems cooperatively as they arise. How will they share the tools? How will we reach the inner section of the garden? Where will we locate the taller plants in relation to the path of the sun this time of year? The children are having a "Be Here Now" experience, fully immersed in hands-on learning. I find that children want to learn, in fact, they love to learn. When they can learn outside, where most children prefer to be from the time they are infants, school is an adventure, something they don't want to miss. Here are pictures from our morning, here in this place we are learning about together.
This morning at the Inside Outside School, Rashid is working with students to plant a Fall garden. The cool morning offers a multi-sensory feast with the feel of the dirt, the passing traffic noises of a rural country road, the weight of the different garden tools, the proximity of other children, the smell of the earth, the balancing their bodies must do to work on uneven ground. The children work together to prepare the soil and are challenged to solve problems cooperatively as they arise. How will they share the tools? How will we reach the inner section of the garden? Where will we locate the taller plants in relation to the path of the sun this time of year? The children are having a "Be Here Now" experience, fully immersed in hands-on learning. I find that children want to learn, in fact, they love to learn. When they can learn outside, where most children prefer to be from the time they are infants, school is an adventure, something they don't want to miss. Here are pictures from our morning, here in this place we are learning about together.
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