What is Field-Based Learning?

Field-based learning provides experiences for students to ask questions they have never asked before. For example, in the Seasonal Storyline, students explore nature-culture connects. In the elementary classroom, this means that the materials are trans-disciplinary.

“Socio-ecological decisions are those decisions made by humans, communities, organizations, and institutions that are informed by and impact the natural world. These decisions are affected by how we think about and enact relationships between humans and the natural world, what are called “nature-culture relations”. Emerging research demonstrates that there is cultural variation in how these relationships are conceptualized and impact how learning and teaching occur. For example, there is important variation across cultural communities around the coordination of attention in observation practices. Further these relational construals are shaped by history and powered social dynamics. For example, variations in air quality and soil quality in neighborhoods are often correlated with race and class. Engaging cultural variation as well as historicity and power, can and should serve as resources for more equitable and expansive field-based science learning. This suggests that learning outdoors in places that matter for learners and their families, that is, in complex socio-ecological systems, may enhance reasoning and decision-making and equitable science education.”