Overview

Jumpstart your imagination and transform your science classroom by centering place-based learning Identity, community, and place are tightly connected and can be leveraged to deepen science learning for students. Place-Based Science Teaching offers K-12 science educators an innovative approach to building learning experiences that embrace the rich and varied knowledge held by people, both past and present, about the places we call home. This book helps teachers to foster greater personal investment of students in their learning, as well as develop NGSS-informed authentic problem-solving and critical reasoning skills. The book will also help teachers create and find joy in their classrooms by connecting lessons to local environments, cultural heritage, and global issues. Written by nationally recognized STEM educators Whitney Aragaki and Kirstin Milks, the book blends inspiring storytelling with practical frameworks and resources. Chapters will take you behind the scenes into innovative classrooms, detailing high-impact, standards-aligned activities and sharing educator stories from diverse settings. Grounded in cutting-edge research and real-world examples, Place-Based Science Teaching Introduces the Place Based Science Teaching Framework that asks ""where are you,"" ""when are you,"" ""who are you,"" and ""who are we together"" as a way to connect learning to local and global contexts Provides classroom-ready lessons and case studies from many educational settings, aligned with NGSS and centered on belonging, access, and engagement Offers strategies for virtual spaces and digital perspectives to enhance teaching in an increasingly online world Includes actionable reflection prompts designed to help teachers explore their own positionality and better connect with their students and communities This book will encourage educators and administrators alike to transform science learning into an opportunity for building empathy, connection, and hope. Place-Based Science Teaching is designed to help teachers foster a sense of place and stewardship among their students, and address peace- and justice-focused solutions that encourage students to care for their communities, think critically about global challenges, and develop the agency to lead for generations to come.

Full Product Details

9781071973684

Table of Contents

Reviews

Place-Based Science Teaching ignites a powerful vision for science education—rooted in local context, real-world relevance, and student curiosity. Written by National Board Certified Teachers, it’s packed with classroom-ready ideas and inspiring stories that show how reimagining the learning journey can spark deeper learning and lasting impact. A must-read for educators ready to transform science teaching! -- Peggy Brookins * Arlington, VA * In our increasingly indoor-, media-, and technology-focused world, reconnecting young people to the environment has never been more important. This book is both a catalyst and a passionate practicum to do just that: grounding science education in the natural and cultural landscapes of home. -- Thor Hanson * Friday Harbor, WA * Place-Based Science Teaching offers a transformative approach to education. By deeply connecting students to their curriculum, community, and planet, this insightful guide showcases the authors’ critical analysis and tremendous creativity. The book’s practical and inspiring strategies empower educators to nurture student agency and a much-needed sense of care for our world, giving me great hope for the future of science teaching. -- David Upegui * North Providence, RI * Everything I know about place-based learning, I learned from Whitney Aragaki. She opened my eyes to a world in which honoring place, histories, and personal context is centered and celebrated with humility and humanity. For educators feeling the isolation that technology can sometimes create, this reading will inspire new possibilities— reimagining online spaces with a place-based approach that celebrates community and honors life experiences. -- Starian Porchia * Anna, TX * This powerful resource provides a multitude of entry points and classroom-tested strategies for place-based science teaching. Not only a resource guide, this book also challenges the traditional notions that science teaching and learning are neutral. A must-read for social justice–oriented science teachers! -- Kimi Waite * Los Angeles, CA * As a teacher who strives to connect my students with their world, this book is extremely useful. It provides ways for my students to learn science through authentic interactions with nature and people in our community. -- Amanda Clapp * Sylva, NC * This book provides clear and convincing evidence of how place-based learning helps students develop a deep knowledge of local environments and their relationships with them, strengthen their ties to the community, and foster the agency to solve real-world problems. Each chapter provides powerful frameworks, lesson-ready tools, and richly detailed cases of science teachers around the country who are engaging their young learners in diverse and holistic forms of placed-based inquiry. -- Mark Windschitl * Seattle, WA * A well thought out book that brings place to its rightful spot in learning by looking at what and who was there, with an eye to honor those before while maintaining it for the present and beyond. -- Melissa Hockaday * Cary, NC * Place-based science immerses any science class in real-world applications for students. No longer will students ask, ‘When am I ever going to use this,’ since they will be using their (k)newfound knowledge wherever and whenever they are. -- Deanna McClung * Elkhorn, WI * Aragaki and Milks invite educators to redraw their maps—not just around textbooks and test scores, but around the texture of home as well. This book will inspire teachers, transform pedagogy, and have a profound impact on students’ lives. -- Bryan A. Brown * Stanford, CA * As an educator of color, I have long searched for authentic resources that center culture, community, and justice in ways that go beyond performative land acknowledgments or one-off lessons. Place-Based Science Teaching: Connecting Students to Curriculum, Community, and Caring for Our Planet is a call to action and a guide for educators to lead with culture, justice, and humanity at the heart of science. It invites us to reclaim science as something that lives in our communities, in our stories, and in our relationships to place. -- Leena Bakshi McLean * Honolulu, HI * An essential, resource-abundant guide for more meaningful, relational, and authentic place-based science education. Nurture your science instruction through grounding, spirit, accountability, intentionality, and importantly: criticality. -- Jerad Koepp * Rainier, WA * Aragaki and Milks offer a powerful case for place-based learning as an essential tool for navigating today’s polycrisis. By honoring identities, histories, and lived experiences, they invite educators and students into inquiry around a more expansive view of knowledge. This book is both a toolkit and an inspiration, encouraging reflection on our relationship with place and affirming our stories as critical testimonies. It is capable of sparking and sustaining action for a more joyful and just future. -- Jothsna Harris * Twin Cities, MN * The power of this book is felt from its very first sentence, posed as a question to unlock the power within us: What if the way forward is just under our feet? This question encourages educators to think holistically about how we can expand our connection and humanity through place-based science practices. This book is the way forward, recommitting us to lifelong learning through curiosity, wonder, and awe of the natural world! -- Juliana Urtubey * Phoenix, AZ * The work I do every day is founded in place-based teaching and learning, and few people have taught me more about how to do that well than Whitney Aragaki. Her vision for education rooted in place is both revolutionary and anchored in ancient wisdom. Aragaki and Milks have written the essential guide to the future of place-based education, which is truly the heartbeat of any valuable education at all. -- Ashley Lamb-Sinclair * Louisville, KY * Aragaki and Milks root science education in the richness of local context and community wisdom. Their approach not only deepens student engagement and builds critical problem-solving skills but also rekindles the joy and purpose that initially drew many of us to teaching. Grounded in decades of classroom experience and research, they provide educators with the tools to cultivate students who can meaningfully connect science learning to the world they will inherit and shape. -- Kristin Cook * Louisville, KY *

Author Information

Whitney Aragaki is an educator, parent, and learner from Hilo, Hawai?i.  She supports students to learn through a lens of abundance that honors place, people and cultures. Her teaching focuses around conversations, practices and systems that sustain the intimate inter-relationship of public education, community and environment. Whitney is a fifth-generation Hawai?i Island resident of Japanese ancestry. She is the daughter of two educators, and was a student in her mother’s biology class. She currently serves as a high school science teacher at her alma mater, Waiakea High School and as a Professor of Practice and Faculty Lead at Reach University. Her two children also thrive in this supportive public-school ecosystem. Whitney has a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Swarthmore College, a Master of Science in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Education from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa College of Education. Whitney, a National Board Certified Teacher, is the 2022 Hawai?i State Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year Finalist. She is a 2021 Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and a 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leader. Kirstin J. Milks teaches AP Biology and introductory science at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Indiana, where she also serves as a STEM team coach and mentor. Kirstin loves collaborating with students and community members to learn together in inclusive and responsive environments, as well as supporting and making public the work of teaching and learning—all with the goal of helping youth build a just and sustainable world. A graduate of Stanford University’s Schools of Medicine (PhD) and Education (MA), she is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellow, the 2025 president of the National Association of Biology Teachers, her Girl Scout council′s Leader of the Year, and a Senior Fellow at the Knowles Teacher Initiative.  She’s worked with organizations including the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the College Board, SXSW EDU, Educating for Environmental Change, and schools across the country to envision, engineer, and enact the future of education, with a focus on humane and socially-responsive science teaching. When she’s not teaching or volunteering with Girl Scouts, Kirstin enjoys visiting the local library with her family, practicing all-ages taekwondo, and singing along at top volume to local radio.

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