Story Corner April 2026

From Campus to Community: Launching Spring PBE Projects

It is officially the season for outdoor projects—many of which begin right inside the classroom. Across SEMIS Coalition schools, exciting things are emerging as the sun warms, the earth awakens, and we remember that winter passes. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working with teachers and partners, who are working with students and families to support their spring place-based learning. Students across southeast Michigan are getting out into their communities for field visits, outdoor play, and out on their campuses, observing and taking stewardship actions! From campus to the landfill, to rain gardens around Rouge Park and Detroit, and even the Detroit River Port Authority Marina: Detroit River Youth Career Expo! Some of the younger students, among those whom our members teach, have visited the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, plan to visit Lake St. Clair Metropark, and are just beginning to reconnect with campus rain gardens to help reestablish them and maybe even add more! 

Place-based Education projects range from small to large, short-term to long term and some even in multi-year phases! These projects have important things in common, though, and emphasize these anchors, 

• Understanding of, and a meaningful connection to place, 
• student-centered inquiry, 
• interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning,  
• school-Community Partnerships, and 
• informed civic engagement and actions!  

A connection to nature and seeing nature as our teacher are important parts of what we do in the SEMIS Coalition. We have learned alongside our teachers and partners about what it means to have impactful, exciting, and academically rigorous learning that happens through this method – much of which is outdoors. One way we enjoy building initial entry points to familiarize students with outdoor learning is through the use of Outdoor Learning Kits. These ‘kits’ can range in scale and be built over time. Small grants and PTO funds might help a school that wants to invest in these! You might find families are willing to donate gently used wagons and backpacks to ease the cost of building the kits. We recommend starting with durable backpacks and a collapsible wagon, which is essential for easy transport and storage within school hallways, and helps make this approach easier for teachers. 

So what’s in one of these? In step with place-based learning, you and your students ultimately decide based on your academic objectives, your PBE inquiry, and the action projects that emerge from your campuses and communities. To get started, we use backpacks and a large wagon that can collapse down for storage – a very important part of the school hallway is what we’ve learned. The backpacks can live in the wagon, and the wagon makes it easier to transport learning outdoors, and often lasts a nice long time, made from a plastic canvas or other durable material. 

Other larger items might include hula hoops of various circumference for ecological studies (and playing of course) outside on the campus. One tip we learned this spring is to purchase a hula hoop gym bag – who knew! The Physical Education teacher, that’s who!

Now that we have backpacks, wagons, and hula hoops, we need materials that help equip students on their journey with outdoor learning and assist in building the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they will need to make the learning meaningful and impactful. As we mentioned previously, the specific contents of a kit should be driven by your learning objectives and student inquiry, but common essentials include:

• Observation Tools: Magnifying glasses, binoculars (fancy versions are not necessary—toys or cardboard work well!), and clipboards. 
• Drawing Materials: Thick crayons, twistable crayons, and various pencils are preferred. We love markers, but outdoors, it’s nice not to have concerns about lids and caps! 
• Ecological Study Tools: Hula hoops of various sizes are perfect for defining study plots or for play. Pro-tip: Use a hula hoop gym bag for easy carrying—a trick we learned from PE teachers!
• Imagination and Science Props: Inspired by Waldorf and Steiner methods, we include hand kites (wrist ribbons) to help students visualize wind direction and weather while exercising their imaginations and using them in play and performance. Mini shovels and fabric measuring tapes are also excellent for focused observations, building motor skills, creative exploration, and problem-solving as they grow in the grades. 
• Comfort items! Kid-sized sunglasses, seating pads, or sunbrellas can all help students feel more comfortable and therefore gain more enjoyment while learning outdoors. 
• Safety items! One way to teach care is to include a small first aid kit (mostly bandaids) in your backpacks or on the wagon and allow students to get them for one another, or distribute them as needed. Small orange cones might help keep boundaries for the outdoor classroom areas that are not fenced in. 
• What about storage? They are often kept in common spaces, maker spaces, libraries, media centers, or STEM labs for classes to check out, similar to books and games from a library, so everyone can benefit from their use!

For those looking to be more eco-friendly, many of these tools, such as the mini-shovels and magnifying glasses, are available in wooden versions rather than plastic. Ultimately, these kits are flexible tools designed to help students observe closely, learn through nature, think critically, and take action in their own backyards. You can check out a gallery below to get an idea of what this looks like! Looking for an opportunity to include your students more in their learning? Invite them to help you create criteria for choosing supplies and to vote on your outdoor learning materials!

Photo caption (above): Example of Outdoor Learning Kits used at Ypsilanti Community High School that can be transported either by buckets or wagon.

Photo caption(top of page): Summer Institute participants used the Outdoor Learning Kits at the prairie outside the Ypsilanti Community High School.

Keep connected.