The SEMIS Coalition Blog
The place to connect, learn and share perspectives in place-based learning
Welcome to our SEMIS Coalition blog! A commons-based digital space for shared resources, images, and more. It’s a place for you to ask questions, interact with peers, and keep current with the latest Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition activities.
Browse through the most recent posts below, or browse past posts by category via the toolbar on the right.
Education as if the World Mattered: Belonging and Interdependence as Education’s Purpose
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...
Challenge Letters! A tool for inquiry-based and community focused learning
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...
Sturgeon in a Changing Great Lakes
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...
Great Lakes Sturgeon 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...
SEMIS Summer Institute: Resources and Support #SEMISSummer16
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...
Fostering Youth Leadership, Green Teacher Article Resources
Students from Detroit Institute of Technology at CODY High School co-authored an article for the 2016 summer issue of Green Teacher Magazine, titled Fostering Youth Leadership in Urban Place-based Education. This inter-generational collaboration challenged us to...
SEMIS Summer Institute Day Three (#SemisSummer16)
By Bill Boyle Day 3 was another day of outdoors, experiential immersion. We started at Helms Haven Park for water testing with the excellent instruction from Friends of the Rouge. We did chemical testing and benthic marcro-invertebrate searches. Both of these are...
SEMIS Summer Institute Day Two (#SemisSummer16)
By Bill Boyle Day 2 started with Ethan Lowenstein introducing the Coalition norms for being in community. These norms are a means of ensuring that as relational beings, we create a space that allows us to bring out the best in each other. The SEMIS norms are: *Speak...
SEMIS Summer Institute Day One (#SemisSummer16)
By Bill Boyle The day started at an adventurous parking lot of gravel and a large pole barn- all of the signs of the outdoors readily available. After jumping in vans for a short ride, we all arrived at the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge's Humbug Marsh unit and...
Community Forum
The annual Community Forum provides students and educators with the opportunity to share their work with SEMIS Coalition members in a professional conference setting with peers and community members sharing methods and project development. This conference puts...