This last article that I found was actually rather small. It is more of an essay, but it was still an insightful piece to aid my research. It is simply called The Benefits of a Place-Based Education. It gives examples of various instances where a place-based education helped the children to apply their newly learned material to their world. They had “jobs” or tasks given to them to solve. For example, the methods for recycling or being environmentally friendly in one of the schools talked about were not very good so the students took notice and made a difference to help their school and the environment. With the place-based education, students are given opportunities to use their knowledge and to see it and feel it. With young children, it is especially important to use tangible examples; they cannot absorb abstract thought the way that adults or even teenagers can. They learn based on experience and when they can’t relate it to their own lives then their minds file it as “not important to learn” which then makes it difficult for those young students to absorb information. The methods that are used in this approach allow for students to utilize the knowledge taught in class in a real-world situation.

Another major aspect mentioned in this article is the incorporation of gardening or nature exploration. It is especially important for students so that they can see what natural science can do and things like that, but nature can also have a very calming and emotionally healing aspect to it. Introducing this to young children will not only help them to better understand sciences, but also the world around them in general physically and emotionally.

Although this article wasn’t particularly helpful in helping me discover new ways that place-education helps students achieve; it helped me to reaffirm the fact that it is beneficial. It was good to know and understand what has been learned about this method before and what has been observed to be true.

National Parks Service. The Benefits of Place-Based Education. Threats and

       Challenges.