Abstract
This chapter describes a case study of place-based education in action called the Bennett’s Millpond Environmental Learning Project. The work sought to engage high school students and teachers in place-based, collaborative research experiences related to environmental sustainability. Results from a formal evaluation of the project are discussed. Several themes related to science teacher education and professional development that emerged from the data are presented, including teacher development as researchers, teacher development of collaborations with the community, and teacher use of technology to facilitate learning and outreach. An argument is provided for the importance of technology as a mediator that allows both teachers and students to easily move between local place-based environmental sustainability issues and global worldviews.
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This work was supported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grants #52006933 and #52005882 at North Carolina State University.
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Gardner, G.E., Karl, C., Ferzli, M., Shea, D., Haase, D., Day, J.B. (2015). The Bennett’s Millpond Environmental Learning Project: Place-Based Education with Student-Teacher Research Teams. In: Stratton, S., Hagevik, R., Feldman, A., Bloom, M. (eds) Educating Science Teachers for Sustainability. ASTE Series in Science Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16411-3_14
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