Place-Based Education
"Place-based education is learning that is rooted in what is local – the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place. The community provides the context for learning, student work focuses on community needs and interests, and community members serve as resources and partners in every aspect of teaching and learning. This local focus has the power to engage students academically, pairing real-world relevance with intellectual rigor, while promoting genuine citizenship and preparing people to respect and live well in any community they choose."
- Rural School and Community Trust
http://www.ruraledu.org
- Rural School and Community Trust
http://www.ruraledu.org
There are numerous educational benefits to be gained from moving pedagogy outside, and a greater and more practical understanding of the environment, and our place in it, is certainly at the top of the list at Ruch Outdoor Community School. A sense of place requires more direct contact with the natural aspects of a place, with soils, landscape, and wildlife. Instead of physically separating students from their surroundings, we create learning experiences that break beyond the boundaries of the classroom and root students in the broader environment through the study of sustainability. Our curriculum operates under the design: "Global issues with local relevance".
Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan
Ruch Outdoor Community School is a supporter of the No Oregon Child Left Inside project and the development of the Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan. Of significance is the collaborative statewide initiatives of place-based education and the alignment of environmental literacy strands with the five educational domains of study at Ruch Community School. The plan promises to "honor Oregon's network of schools, organizations and agencies that provide environmental, sustainability and field-based education" (pg. 11) as well as "create a climate in which learners are intellectually stimulated and motivated to learn about the environment and sustainability" (pg. 27).
Statewide Outdoor School
Ruch Outdoor Community School is seeking to offer and host a three-day outdoor school program by integrating our model of place-based experiential learning. On November 8, 2016, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 99, authorizing funds from the state lottery to provide all fifth- or sixth-grade students in Oregon access to a week of Outdoor School. Measure 99 provided the funding for the Outdoor School law, which was passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2015. At Ruch Outdoor Community School, we do our part to break down the walls of the classroom and to rethink the role of a school in supporting thriving, healthy, and regenerative communities.