Through place-based education (PBE), learners engage in hands-on, real world experiences that connect them to the people, places, cultures, and histories that make up their community. These local connections form a foundation for studying subjects across the curriculum. The neighborhood and surrounding area becomes the classroom, and its people are part of the learning community.

Featured Resources

  • Learning Locally, Transforming Globally Cover

    Learning Locally, Transforming Globally

    Utilizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this framework encourages learners to be co-participants in creating a more healthy and just planet, starting in their place.
    • pdf
    • Guides & Toolkits
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  • Project Seasons cover

    Project Seasons

    147+ activities for classroom educators, pre-school and after-school teachers, camp instructors, and parents.
    • pdf
    • Guides & Toolkits
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  • Cultivating Joy and Wonder Cover

    Cultivating Joy & Wonder: Educating for Sustainability in Early Childhood Through Nature, Food, and Community

    Essays and early childhood activities that encourage exploration of the natural world.
    • pdf
    • Guides & Toolkits
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  • This Lake Alive! - Cover

    This Lake Alive: An Interdisciplinary Handbook for Teaching and Learning about the Lake Champlain Basin

    A tool to help create an interdisciplinary study of the Lake Champlain Basin with informational essays and activities.
    • pdf
    • Guides & Toolkits
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Why place-based learning?

Research has shown that PBE can boost student engagement; local social and economic vitality; and ecological integrity. Through PBE, learners develop a deeper sense of place by reconnecting with their community in ways that are real and meaningful.

Place-based learning is essential to Education for Sustainability. By understanding our own place, we can better understand the world—and live in ways that are just and sustainable for all.

Events & Programs

Two young children smile while digging with small trowels in a dirt patch
Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability
Over the course of a year, youth-adult teams develop and implement community action projects to address the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Offered in partnership with UP for Learning.
Program Details
Green and yellow maple tree seedlings on a forest floor
A Forest for Every Classroom
A year-long learning community. Explore sustainability concepts on the Land, then bring lessons from the Land into your curriculum and instruction
Program details