Growing Our Place: Beecher Middle/High School Outdoor Classroom Project

Abstract

Discovering PLACE, University of Michigan-Flint faculty and staff, and community organizations,fin collaboration with this SNRE Master’s project team, worked with Beecher Middle/High School, a Flint public school, to develop an implementation plan and best practices guide for a placebased outdoor classroom. The outdoor classroom project is designed to engage the school community in an ongoing dialogue about food and environmental justice that will support students’ academic and social skill development. The team assisted Beecher and Discovering PLACE in researching and planning an outdoor classroom on the school grounds, organizing and implementing a series of participatory student and teacher design charrettes, and researching and developing a place-based curriculum series for middle and high school students, as well as a best practices guide for overcoming common challenges to outdoor classrooms. Our Master’s project team worked with Discovering PLACE and Beecher Middle/High School to develop a design and implementation plan for a place-based outdoor classroom and corresponding curriculum. The overarching goal of the project was to strengthen the presence of place-based education at Beecher, and to document the process of implementing the project so that the experience can be used as a framework for other schools interested in incorporating place-based education into their own educational practices. Discovering PLACE and Beecher desired assistance in researching and planning an outdoor classroom on the school grounds, organizing and implementing a series of participatory student and teacher design charrettes, and researching and developing a place-based curriculum for middle and high school students.