The impact of place-based education on middle school students' environmental literacy and stewardship

Many educators take students into their local watershed hoping they will come to care for it. But does a local project on its own build stewardship? And what gets in the way when a teacher tries to run one?

The researchers followed two experienced middle school science teachers and their 224 students in the Midwestern United States through one school year. Each class ran a yearlong project on habitat loss. The researchers tracked the projects with student tests and surveys, plus teacher interviews, reports, and self-ratings.

The projects looked different in each school. One class raised salmon in the classroom, tested five local streams, and released the fish in the healthiest one. The other class traced runoff from a school pond to a nearby lake and pulled 90 bags of an invasive plant, garlic mustard.

The researchers found:

1. Choice and seeing impact went hand in hand with growth. Students who felt they had made real choices about what to do and how to do it grew in their care for nature, their attachment to their community, and their confidence to act. Students who felt they had no say slipped back on most of these measures. Students who could see how their work helped the environment showed the same pattern. These links appeared for stewardship, but not for test scores.
2. Knowledge rose a little. Great Lakes test scores rose about 5% overall and about 10% in the suburban class. Students' written answers about habitat barely changed.
3. Partnerships were the easy part. Teachers rated themselves strongest on working with community partners and on giving projects weeks or months to unfold. They rated themselves weakest on student voice, weighing different viewpoints, exploring students' own values, and public discussion. Posters made in one class were never shared with the community.
4. Many obstacles sat outside the classroom. The funder required project topics to be fixed in advance, which left less room for student choice. Recommended readings were hard for English learners. Each teacher was the only one in their school doing this work. Record snowfall cut outdoor time, and a neighborhood group pulled out over liability worries.

What this means for your practice:

• Give students a real say, even when the topic is set. Here, the funder chose the broad focus. The authors suggest telling students how and why the goal was chosen, then inviting them to help reach it. Make sure students know when they have choices, and ask for their opinions and feedback along the way.
• Make the impact visible. Draw clear links between each task and what it changes locally. Releasing salmon into the stream students judged healthiest is one example.
• Plan where the work will go public. Decide early who will see students' posters, flyers, or findings, and how students can talk with local decision-makers. The authors note that video calls can work when face-to-face meetings are not possible.
• Make time for viewpoints and values. These were the teachers' weakest areas. Ask students what different people in the community think about the issue, and what they themselves think.
• Don't go it alone. Teachers valued the program's help finding partners and funding, and a kickoff festival run by local experts. Share your plans with administrators early, and look for a colleague to plan with.
• Check reading materials. If recommended texts are hard for English learners, plan support before the project starts.
• Look beyond the test. Teachers also tracked learning by listening to student discussions and watching engagement in the field. The authors suggest using several ways to see what students learn.