Exemplar Type: CASE STUDY
Title: Michigan's Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative - A Statewide Place-Based Education Effort to Connect Schools to Communities
Grades: 3-5, 6-8
Discipline: Interdisciplinary | Science, Social Studies, Literacy, Visual Arts
Submitted By: Greg Smith
Summary: The Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) has for 10 years been engaged in the systematic introduction of place-based learning approaches with an environmental and ecojustice focus throughout the state of Michigan. It has sought to create strong partnerships between schools and local organizations and agencies with the intent of cultivating knowledgeable and active citizen stewards. By the 2015-2016 academic year, the GLSI had worked with teachers in 283 schools, engaging over 80,000 students in its projects, demonstrating how place-based approaches can be brought to scale in both rural and urban communities.
Big Ideas
Humans are dependent on Earth's life-support systems
Places are alive, unique and evolving. If humans want to flourish over time, our relationships with the places in which we live must be mutually beneficial
Sustain-ability requires individual and social learning and community practice
Individual Rights are upheld by Collective Responsibilities. We must reconcile them when they come into conflict with one another
We must pay attention to the results of our thinking and behavior on the systems upon which we depend if we want to thrive over time. Read the Feedback
We are all responsible for the difference we make. Everything we do and everything we don't do makes a difference
Higher Order Thinking Skills
Complex: Critical Thinking
Mindful: Questioning
Applied Knowledge -
Strong Sense of Place
Responsible Local and Global Citizenship
Dispositions
Curious
Efficacious
Motivated
Caring
Collaborative
Place/Community Conscious
Applications and Actions
Create Social Learning Communities
Engage in Dialogue
Design to optimize health and adaptability
Ask different questions and actively listen for the answer
Serve your community
Community Connections
Students and teachers make authentic contributions to sustainable community development through service learning opportunities, project-based and place based learning opportunities for students that are laterally and vertically embedded in the core curriculum
Provide Internships for students
Provide Independent and Curriculum Based Learning Sites (case studies, learning journeys, research sites)