Place-Based Education is a fundamentally different approach to learning than what is offered in most schools. It is an approach that seeks to draw out the vital connections between students and their community. It is a way to help students come to know and care for the place in which they live. It is a way to take fuller advantage of the incredibly rich resources of the Boulder area.
“Place-based education provides students with opportunities to connect with themselves, their community, and their local environment through hands-on, real-world learning experiences. It is rooted in the integrated core curricular activities of science, social studies, communication arts and fine arts, and is expanded upon and applied by extending the classroom into the schoolyard and the neighborhood. 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
“The primary value of place-based education lies in the way that it serves to strengthen children’s connections to others and to the regions in which they live. It enhances achievement, but, more important, it helps overcome the alienation and isolation of individuals that have become hallmarks of modernity.” —Gregory Smith