by Anna Balzer | Aug 11, 2024 | Place-Based Education, Summer Institute
Learn more about Anna! Check out our social media Dear SEMIS Coalition members, I hope everyone has been able to enjoy their favorite parts of summer in Southeast Michigan and to find time for rest, reflection, and rejuvenation amidst all of your other activities...
by Ethan Lowenstein | Jan 4, 2024 | Blog, Grants / Funding, Place-Based Education
Community care grows from common ground.Our 20K goal was met thanks to your support! As we start off 2024, the year that I transition out of the directorship—a position I’ve dedicated a good portion of my career to—I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my own...
by SEMIS Coalition | Dec 5, 2023 | Blog, Events, Place-Based Education
Image Description: Five James & Grace Lee Boggs School Students and their educator, Jacinda Bowman, after their presentation titled “How Student-Led Environmental Justice Teams Organized the First Annual Boggs Earth Day Event.” Photo taken at the 2023...
by Sarah Halson | Oct 31, 2022 | Blog, Humanizing Education, Place-Based Education
By: Susan Kinsky As place-based educators, we facilitate relationships: between people, with students, with community members, and with the places we study. I want to focus on emotional relationships and connections with places. I don’t think this is separate from...
by Sarah Halson | Jun 30, 2022 | Blog, Civic Engagement, Curriculum, Place-Based Education, Upper Elementary, Water Quality / Studies
“I thought I knew everything there was to know about water, but I didn’t know water was everywhere!” proclaimed a 6th grade student during their final presentation to community members after a month-long unit on stormwater. This student was one of almost 300 students...
by Sarah Halson | Mar 20, 2022 | Outdoor Learning Initiative, Place-Based Education
What happens to children when they get a daily dose of trees and fresh air? When they have the opportunity to get outside briefly for a walk, learn lessons outdoors, or simply reflect in front of a natural scene? Many studies indicate that playing, relaxing and...
by Miriam Furlan Brighente, PhD | Sep 21, 2021 | Disability Justice, Events, Place-Based Education
On July 22, 2021, coalition members had a critical discussion facilitated by Jason DeCamillis (teacher consultant at Washtenaw ISD) and me after watching the movie Crip Camp on Zoom. As a result, it launched a year-long initiative to create a universal design for...
by SEMIS Coalition | May 17, 2021 | Community Forum 2021, Place-Based Education
Click on the button below to view the Google Site portal to the students’ individual websites. Click to view: Eco-Projects Students completed the “Eco-Project” at a field site near their home; there, they made observations, journal entries, sketches,...
by Miriam Furlan Brighente, PhD | Apr 2, 2021 | Civic Engagement, Community Partners, Environmental Sustainability, New Community Partners, Paulo Freire, Place-Based Education, Power of Community, Transformational Partnership, Youth Voice
Continuing the annual virtual series learning as we are still experiencing a global pandemic, SEMIS Coalition met with teachers, community partners, administration staff, and coaches for the Winter ’21 Professional Learning. One of the main goals was to use...
by Miriam Furlan Brighente, PhD | Apr 2, 2021 | Humanizing Education, Metaphors, Place-Based Education, Revolutionary Love, Social & Emotional Learning, Social-emotional Learning
During the Winter Professional Learning of 2021, Ethan Lowenstein, Director of SEMIS Coalition, gave a beautiful and hopeful speech addressing the challenges we have experienced lately. People in global, national, and local communities have faced a frightening...
by SEMIS Coalition | Jan 6, 2021 | Inquiry-Based Learning, Place-Based Education, STEM, Uncategorized, Water quality testing
Watershed Education 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 is our...
by Ethan Lowenstein | Aug 31, 2020 | Civic Action / Leadership, Community Stewardship, Place-Based Education, Readings, Social & Emotional Learning
Living into our values What is education for? The past 13 years have prepared us for this moment of uncertainty and possibility in education. Many in our community are facing significant hardships. As educators – of all kinds – we play several roles and have responded...
by 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...
by SEMIS Coalition | Jul 1, 2020 | Civic Action / Leadership, Events, Intergenerational Dialogue, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Place-Based Education, Professional Development Materials, Student Voice
Place-based education (PBE) is an approach to teaching and learning that uses the local environment and community to investigate content and engage students in stewardship and civic action. PBE, at its root, is a humanizing practice that puts youth and...
by 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...
by 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...
by Lisa Voelker | Feb 6, 2018 | Featured Front 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...
by 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...
by 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...
by Lisa Voelker | May 29, 2016 | Ecosystems / Biodiversity, Environmental Inventory, High School, Inquiry-Based Learning, NGSS, Place-Based Education, Teacher Toolkit, Water Quality / Studies, Water quality testing
As a result of the Walk in the Park project, students have developed a sense of responsibility for nature in their community. Students have been able to use Rouge Park as a space to learn stewardship skills such as water quality monitoring, conducting environmental...
by Lisa Voelker | Oct 27, 2015 | EcoJustice, Place-Based Education, Porter Chair Series, Social & Emotional Learning, Topics
Recognizing Community, Recognizing Its Members By Bill Boyle October 27, 2015 One of the more promising antidotes to the alienated individualism of the “ethic of achievement” in schools lies in the use of Restorative Practices. As I’ve written previously, “We tend to...
by Lisa Voelker | Oct 14, 2015 | Place-Based Education, Professional Development Materials
Our Fall PD on September 25th, 2015 was a great kick-off to the SEMIS Coalition 2015-16 project year! We had many new community partners and faculty from EMU, and many familiar faces we are happy to see return! It was wonderful to see everyone who was...
by admin | Feb 12, 2015 | Place-Based Education, Social & Emotional Learning, STEM, Student Voice
How do you use learning media to tell stories of place? This month, we’re featuring three powerful place-based educators’ approaches to using technology to tell their stories. Laura DePalma from the James and Grace Lee Boggs School, Makena Riley, from...
by SEMIS Coalition | Dec 15, 2014 | Events, Place-Based Education
Teachers and partners joined together for another great statewide conference this November. The theme of presentations ranged from civic engagement and community partnership best practices, to student voice and STEAM connections. Here are highlights from SEMIS...
by SEMIS Coalition | Dec 15, 2014 | EcoJustice, Place-Based Education
The SEMIS Coalition and others around the country are engaging in new and creative ways to make learning about community issues relevant and impactful to youth. Much of place-based education and the EcoJustice framework that we use in the SEMIS Coalition gets to just...
by SEMIS Coalition | Dec 15, 2014 | Place-Based Education
It is always great to see SEMIS members celebrated in the media, and the SEMIS Coalition has received a lot of it in the past month. These articles feature Neinas Elementary and Hope of Detroit, as well as the larger Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. Detroit kids...
by SEMIS Coalition | Dec 15, 2014 | Civic Action / Leadership, Community History, Early Childhood, EcoJustice, Ecosystems / Biodiversity, Environmental Impact, Food Security, Food Systems, Gardens, High School, Inquiry-Based Learning, Literacy, Lower Elementary, Middle Grades, Place-Based Education, Social & Emotional Learning, Upper Elementary, Water Quality / Studies
Have you used these books? Share how! At the Summer Institute, teachers received several books to support EcoJustice literacy and investigating the commons. These books were chosen for their support of a few different concepts: integrating multiple perspectives into...
