“Place-based education offers a way to integrate the curriculum around a study of place while inspiring stewardship and authentic renewal and revitalization of civic life.”

— David Sobel

“Place-based education is anytime, anywhere learning that leverages the power of place to personalize learning.”

— Tom Vander Ark

“Place-based education is an approach that connects learning and communities with the primary goals of increasing student engagement, boosting academic outcomes, impacting communities and promoting understanding of the world around us.”

— Getting Smart in partnership with eduinnovation & Teton Science Schools

Our students engage daily in shared experiences on our campus to provide us with common ground and a solid foundation on which to teach core subjects such as math, reading, writing, arts, social studies, and science.  Rather than just reading a chapter on geology, we observe and investigate the caves and rock formations on our afternoon hike.  Instead of just learning about plants with an internet search, we talk with our local experts and visit their orchards and farms to experience how current farming practices tie into our community and the history of the area.  We care for our chickens and tend our gardens.  While we love to explore our world through maps, just looking isn’t enough.  We track the flight paths of our homing pigeons and try to map the world ourselves from their mileage and journey when we release them.  We collect, draw, discuss, examine, build, collaborate, ask, create, listen, climb, jump, experiment, share, and wonder, not to replace core subjects, but to fuel and empower our students as readers, writers, thinkers, community members, and learners.

In order to make connections between our homes, school, and the wider world, we venture off site on field work days.  These experiences not only offer time together to explore new places, but they also enrich and structure our curriculum content, making the work we do on campus before and after our field work days more meaningful.