Many educators want students to see their community as a place to learn and to make a difference. What does that look like across different ages and settings?
Staff at Teton Science Schools, which has run programs in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, since 1967, describe how they use place-based education in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. They share six design principles, four program examples, and a before-and-after survey of 206 visiting middle and high school students.
The six principles are: link local and global issues, put learners at the center, build on students' questions, have students design solutions, use the community as a classroom, and bring subjects together.
The authors report:
- Fifth graders helped with a real park problem. People had dumped aquarium fish into Kelly Warm Springs, a warm spring in Grand Teton National Park. The spring flows toward the Snake River, home to the area's only native trout, and park scientists had found goldfish and other non-native species close to the river. They needed more information on which fish were present and whether they carried disease. Fifth graders took turns as "fish biologist" (identifying species), "fish doctor" (checking for disease), data recorder, photographer and fish handler. After observing the spring, they chose their own questions, such as whether native fish were more common at the source or downstream. They then presented and compared their data. Nearly every group knew someone who had dumped a fish there. One student, whose father works locally as a fishing guide, realized the invasive fish could affect his family's living. When park rangers visited weeks later, students could still explain their experiments. Rangers now meet younger brothers and sisters who already know not to dump fish.
- Older students thrived on choosing their own research. At the organization's own school, 11th and 12th graders spent four days in the park each February designing and carrying out original science projects. This is their Group 4 Project, part of the International Baccalaureate diploma, which focuses on how different sciences and their methods connect. Students shaped questions with teacher guidance, then worked independently in small groups before peers and teachers critiqued their findings. Students said they most valued working with peers and the freedom to choose their own topics.
- Students grew in confidence over a six-day program. Students from a Missouri school district answered the same survey just before and at the end of a six-day program in both parks. Afterward, they reported more confidence in doing science, leading and helping peers, including others' views in decisions, and adapting when plans change. They also showed a better understanding that science rests on evidence and can change when new evidence appears.
- The approach works with adults too. On the organization's wildlife tours, guides let visitors watch pronghorn through spotting scopes, then find and smell the sagebrush the animals eat. The talk then widens to the oil and gas development that often happens in sagebrush areas, linking wildlife with local culture and the economy.
What this means for your practice:
- Partner on real questions. The fish study was built around data that park scientists needed (finding 1). Ask park or agency staff what information would help them, then design student work around it.
- Give everyone a named job. The fish study rotated students through the roles real scientists play (finding 1). The chapter does not say how much the roles helped, but they are easy to copy.
- Observe first, then let students ask. Students explored the spring before choosing their questions, and older students shaped questions with teacher guidance before working independently (findings 1 and 2).
- Close with sharing. Have groups present their data, compare results and critique one another's work (findings 1 and 2).
- Look for links to students' lives. The fish problem touched students' own families and friends (finding 1). Ask students how an issue affects the people around them.
- Start with what's in front of you, then widen out. Move from an animal, to what it eats, to the human choices that shape its habitat, as the tour guides do (finding 4).
- Use the six principles as a planning checklist. They are the authors' framework rather than something they tested, but they offer a quick way to check a program's design.
The Bottom Line
Staff at Teton Science Schools describe four programs in and near Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Fifth graders collected data on invasive fish for park scientists, and weeks later could still explain their experiments. High school students designed their own research in the park and most valued the freedom to choose. After a six-day program, 206 visiting middle and high school students felt more confident doing science, leading and helping others, and adapting when plans change. They also better understood that science rests on evidence and can change. Tour guides used the same approach with adult visitors. For educators, the examples show how real roles, students' own questions and links to local lives can turn a park or neighborhood into a classroom.