Lisa Voelker Jan 6, 2021 Community Stewardship, Curriculum, Ecosystems / Biodiversity, Environmental Inventory, High School, Uncategorized, Water Quality / Studies
PBE Topics of Inquiry Water and land use, stream ecology, macroinvertebrates, conducted chemical, biological and physical stream monitoring techniques, stream mapping and assessment, nature drawing and journaling. Essential Question What role could the Rouge Park play...
Lisa Voelker Aug 28, 2020 Curriculum Integration, Events, High School, Inquiry-Based Learning, Intergenerational Dialogue, Middle Grades, Place-Based Education, Social & Emotional Learning, Student Voice, Summer Institute, Teacher Toolkit, Upper Elementary
Young Wisdom Advice From Youth What helps me engage now? The teachers and relationships. Over the course of the last 6 months we have had the opportunity to spend time learning with a few different groups of students from southeast Michigan schools. We have been...
Lisa Voelker Jul 31, 2020 Events, Professional Development Materials, Social & Emotional Learning, Summer Institute
This introduction with teacher Bill Boyle was an opportunity to understand what Mindfulness is, and is not, to develop or deepen practice, and make connections between our personal practice and the issues of our time. We gathered for one hour a day for 5 days from...
Lisa Voelker Jul 1, 2020 Civic Action / Leadership, Community Mapping, Community Stewardship, Events, High School, Inquiry-Based Learning, Leadership Development, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Place-Based Education, Professional Development Materials, Summer Institute, Upper Elementary, Water Quality / Studies
SEMIS Coalition Orientation & Place-Based Education 101 During these two events on June 17 & 24 participants included new and returning member teachers, community partners, district leaders and administrators. At this orientation people were given a sense of our...
Lisa Voelker May 14, 2020 Curriculum, Green Energy, High School, Middle Grades, STEM, Teacher Toolkit, Upper Elementary
Place-Based Education for Remote Learning: Mapping Activities Here is a collection of activities for practicing place-based stewardship education from home. These are the beginning in a series of ideas that are developing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic...
Lisa Voelker May 12, 2020 Curriculum, Early Childhood, High School, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Teacher Toolkit, Upper Elementary
Place-Based Education for Remote Learning: Mapping Activities Here is a collection of activities for practicing place-based stewardship education from home. These are the beginning in a series of ideas that are developing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic...
Lisa Voelker May 1, 2020 Civic Action / Leadership, Community Mapping, Curriculum, Professional Development Materials
Community Mapping Brief - Best Practices, MSU Outreach Partners With new technology, the possibility of mapping information about communities as a basis for decision making has captured the imagination of policy makers. This Brief is one of two that will explore the...
Lisa Voelker May 1, 2020 Curriculum, Events, Social & Emotional Learning
Town Hall Spring 2020 On April 14, over 60 SEMIS Coalition members gathered online for a welcome point of connection after much distance, and a global pandemic changing the fabric of our daily lives as educators…as humans. We talked about how we can care for...
Lisa Voelker Mar 17, 2019 Uncategorized
Community Forum Info Meeting (1) with presenter information.
Lisa Voelker Jun 5, 2018 Events, Professional Development Materials, Summer Institute
Summer Institute Agenda 2018 Part One & Two Some details for Part Two are subject to change. Part One Logistics_SEMIS Summer Institute Hope to see you there!
Lisa Voelker Mar 12, 2018 Uncategorized
Information for those planning on presenting at this year’s community forum: Schedule April 30, 2018 8:30 a.m. Registration Table opens 9-9:30 a.m. Light Breakfast and refreshments available 9:30-9:45 a.m. Opening remarks 10:00 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. Presentation...
Lisa Voelker Feb 6, 2018 Curriculum, High School, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Teacher Toolkit, Water Quality / Studies, Water quality testing
An Introduction to Michigan Watersheds for Teachers, Students and Residents — Michigan Sea Grant Beach Mysteries — Alliance for the Great Lakes Follow The Drop — Earth Partnership for Schools University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum Great...
Lisa Voelker Feb 6, 2018 Uncategorized
Community mapping can be a helpful process to begin a PBE inquiry with students. Community mapping can be done is diverse ways, meeting many learning goals depending on design. Try mapping your community asking certain questions, framing an issue, or with completely...
Lisa Voelker Feb 6, 2018 Leadership Development, Place-Based Education, Readings, Teacher Toolkit
Place-based Education can be a complex process to dive into! Check out these videos to hear stories of schools, classrooms, students, and teachers in Southeast Michigan who are each engaging in PBE. The Spotlight on Stewards Project is a collaborative pilot program...
Lisa Voelker Feb 6, 2018 Featured Font Page, Inquiry-Based Learning, Place-Based Education, Student Voice, Teacher Toolkit
Place-Based Education — broaden and deepen your knowledge of PBE by checking out the following websites. PBE may look different depending on where you live and attend school, but there are principles, ideas, and practices that connect PBE work across the...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Summer Institute Each year, we design our annual Summer Institute around an ecological theme, creating a common language for engaging in deep cultural-ecological analysis, project planning, and community inquiry and action. Using the best practices of professional...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Scope and sequence of professional learning Community partners and classroom-based teachers learn in a collaborative setting throughout the annual 9-day SEMIS Coalition professional development (PD) series. The PD series is cumulative over a one-year period and...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Can a river be a teacher? Visual Arts lesson: can-a-river-be-a-teacher_lesson-one Eco-Justice and Visual Arts, MS and HS slide show: eco-justice-and-art-education-slide-show A Walk in the Park materials, a year-long 9th grade project with SEMIS Coalition and Detroit...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Earth Force Community Action and Problem Solving Process The Six Step Model: https://earthforce.org/community-action-and-problem-solving-process/ Youtube Channel for the Earth Force Six Step Process: CommunityActionProblemSolvingProcess
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
NOAA Assets Document, compiled by Laura Florence: noaa-great-lakes-education-resources-and-links Bay Watersheds Education & Training Program, Meaninful Watershed Education Experiences (MWEE):...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Designing Sustained PBE (Place-based Education), created by SEMIS Coalition Program Director, Rebecca Nielsen: designing-sustained-pbe-2016 Backward Design: Backwards Mapping – SEMIS planning updated Questions that Deepen Discussion: Questions that Deepen...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
What’s in a cup of coffee? At Experiencia Academy, students followed the story of the coffee bean from a roaster in Ohio all the way to the fields where it grows in Mexico, Central and South America. Reach Trade Coffee Company’s Water for the America’s campaign...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
How do you turn a dumping ground into a teachable space? Hope of Detroit Academy (HODA) students engage in many community-based projects as self-defined stewards of their community. While working on other projects, illegal dumping came up in student conversations as a...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
The Green Team gains STEAM at DIT-CODY With the support of the community and their teachers, students at DIT-CODY are taking the lead in developing STEAM-based solutions to pressing Detroit Public School sustainability needs, like energy, insulation, recycling, and...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
It’s hard to find a better example of project-based learning than how students at Jack Harvey Elementary spent their school year — raising and releasing salmon. Through the Michigan DNR’s Salmon in the Classroom program, students raised and cared for salmon in their...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
What can you learn by putting on a pair of waders? Tracey Marchyok’s students at Ann Arbor Learning Community discovered the ways water and land use impact stream ecology and, in the process, became deeply invested in their Huron River watershed. They studied...
Lisa Voelker Jul 2, 2017 Uncategorized
Articles, Book Chapters, White Papers, and Book References Developing Teachers’ Capacity for Ecojustice Education and Community-Based Learning; by Ethan Lowenstein, Rebecca Martusewicz, & Lisa Voelker; Teacher Education Quarterly, Fall 2010 (PDF) Conference...
Lisa Voelker Apr 19, 2017 Arts in PBE, Civic Action / Leadership, Community Stewardship, Events, High School, Inquiry-Based Learning, Leadership Development, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Upper Elementary
What stood out to participants from last year’s forum… “What stands out today for me was learning new things and learning how to listen.” Student participant, Grade 9-12 “The young students from Ann Arbor presenting on the Ann Arbor carbon plume and the...
Lisa Voelker Sep 21, 2016 Uncategorized
Written by Greg Smith. One of the arguments I’ve used to justify place- and community-based educational approaches has been tied to the way I’ve seen it increase students’ intrinsic motivation to learn and participate. I’ve suggested that this enhanced motivation is...
Lisa Voelker Aug 30, 2016 Place-Based Education, Professional Development Materials, Uncategorized
Written by Bill Boyle and Ethan Lowenstein. Chet Bowers asks a question that we should all be considering, especially those of us who serve as educators: “How do we live more interdependent lives based on practices that are less dependent on a monetized world, that...
Lisa Voelker Aug 28, 2016 Uncategorized
Some Background There are many ways to structure place-based learning experiences with students. In place-based education, you can give students a range of freedom to make choices. Sometimes it is difficult to frame a place-based inquiry in a way that is clear to...
Lisa Voelker Aug 1, 2016 Community History, Ecosystems / Biodiversity, Environmental Impact, Place-Based Education, Professional Development Materials, Readings
By Matt Siegfried Display image courtesy of Fresh Water and Marine Image Bank, University of Washington The sturgeon, or Na’me in Anishinaabemowin (the language of the many Great Lakes First Nations communities), is an ancient fish just emerging from danger of...
Lisa Voelker Aug 1, 2016 Community History, Environmental Impact, Professional Development Materials, Readings
This reading list was compiled by historian Matt Siegfried. Great Lakes Sturgeon Readings Abel, Kerry M., and Jean Friesen. Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects. Winnipeg, Man.: University of Manitoba Press, 1991. Ashworth, William. The...
Lisa Voelker Jul 31, 2016 Image Gallery, Porter Chair Series, Professional Development Materials
Commons-based educational practices and caring communities are often hidden from public view. Stories of youth, teachers, and communities who are seeking to create “beloved communities” are not often shared by the media. In this pre-conference event,...
Lisa Voelker Jul 19, 2016 Uncategorized
By Bill Boyle We have put together some resources that are based on the 2016 SEMIS Summer Institute. These are resources intended to build on, support and extend the experiences and learning themes that were developed over the course of these four days. (Check out...
