Community+changes+due+to+PBE

=Community Changes Due to Place-Based Education =

 Once initiated and implemented, place-based education programs have positive effects on the community. According to Powers (2004), successful place-based education programs will “improve a community’s environmental quality and social and economical vitality” (p. 17). Although not much research has been conducted, I have gathered information from multiple sources and identified four community benefits due to PBE.

 The first benefit is that through place-based education, community members and students are able to build a strong relationship. By working one-on-one with students, community members begin to have a more positive perception of adolescents. Business leaders and community individuals become mentors, friends, and teachers to the students. In addition, community members become future networks for the students. Once strong ties are formed, business owners and community leaders begin to become more informed about local educational issues and school problems. Specifically, individuals from the community become more invested in fixing and providing funds for the school (Powers, 2004).

 Secondly, when the community is an active participant in implementing place-based education programs, important community issues and problems are more likely to be addressed. Students are able to work on projects that really affect the outcome of a community, as well as have real value to the success of a community. For example, in a small, poor town in South Dakota, one local high school decided to track the spending of money within their communities. This required the students to set up an action committee where they would learn and understand how community money was spent. In order to do this, students worked on an economic analysis. Once their data were collected, the group of students held a public presentation. This presentation informed local community members on what was happening. Their presentation had an effect on local businesses, who, after realizing the truth about how money was being spent, changed their spending patterns and behaviors to prevent any more spending of resources and money to businesses outside of the community (Powers, 2004).

 Thirdly, place-based education programs can create a strong sense of community and pride. People begin to feel more comfortable with each other, respect one another, and work together to help the school and the community. Students are encouraged to find out more about local history and have a curiosity towards learning about the community in general (Flood, 1994).

 Lastly, because students work in the community, they learn how to become active leaders in the community and how to create real change. This is because place-based education allows students to learn about the community's history and the structure of the government, as well as become informed on local policies and issues. Students, therefore, learn about the community’s history as well as the structure of the local government and become more informed about local policies and issues. Place-based education leads to a “culturally literate community that is more informed about, and more openly able to discuss, local ecological, environmental and social issues” (Plumb, 2003, p. 39).

 Up until now, we have briefly described how place-based education programs affect the local community. However, these programs also have a positive influence on the relationship between parent and student. Through place-based education, parent and student communication improves at home. When learning activities are paired with service-learning programs, students tend to show a greater interest in completing the activity. Because students are more interested in the activities they participated in during school, they are more likely to share what they learned at home. When discussing place-based education activities at home, students have the ability to encourage their family and friends to take a more active role in local issues (Plumb, 2003).

===Flood, P.S. (1994). Maine students learn to appreciate diversity. NASSP Bulletin, 78, 30-33. doi:10.1177/019263659407856406 ===

===Plumb, S. (2003, October). The potential power of place in education: An evaluation of the === ===Northeast community mapping program. [Online forum post]. Retrieved from http://www.peecworks.org/PEEC/PEEC_Research/S0009D4DB-0009D4DE ===

Powers, A.L. (2004). An evaluation of four place-based education programs. //The J// //ournal of Environmental Education, 35 ( //4): 17-32.