Place-Based Learning

Supporting Educator's

Performance and Practice

Place-Based Learning

Supporting Educator's

Performance and Practice

James Lewicki

James is a nationally-recognized place-based learning school coach who has supported educator's performance and practice initiatives in 150+ schools across 20 states. He appreciates what it takes for a community to activate a thriving school.

A classroom teacher for 17 years, he was a Wisconsin Teacher of the Year finalist, for innovative place-based teaching, and Crawford County Conservation Teacher of the Year.

Prior to teaching, James was a YMCA Camp Director and Wilderness Instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Most recently, he was a Colorado School Principal for a K-5 Fine Arts Elementary, and a K-8 Place-Based Elementary.

For 27 years, this classic on place-based learning has guided educators across America and abroad. Here is your copy! Coop Ecology and Place: Development of a Pedagogy of Place Curriculum

For you, James' Book: To Know the Joy of Work Well Done: A Place-Based Learning Classic.

He collaborates with colleagues to build hope at The Center for Hope and Experiential Learning

James has an M.S. in Education from the University of Wisconsin- LaCrosse, an M.S. in Outdoor Education Administration from George Williams College, a B.S. in Social Sciences from The Evergreen State College, and an A.A. in Outdoor Recreation Leadership from Colorado Mountain College. He lives in Boulder, Colorado

For coaching contact:

Email: jameslewicki@earthlink.net

Place-based Learning

The Harvard Graduate School of Education addressed the power of place-based learning in its monograph, Learning in Place:

"Pedagogy of place brings school and community together on a common pathway dedicated to stewardship and life-long learning. It is teaching by using one’s landscape, family, and community surroundings as the educational foundation. Significant learning takes place outdoors and in the community. This community expands outward from local landscape and home, to regional realities, to international issues. In coming to know one’s place, one comes to know what is fundamental to all places." - James Lewicki

Click on cover of "To Know the Joy" for your gifted copy!

Project Ideas

Project Ideas

What does it look like when you are done? There are literally hundreds of ideas for projects! Here is a quick 100. Add to it every time another project idea becomes a completed project!

1. Design an advertisement

2. Curate and hang an art exhibit

3. Create a batik

4. Draw a blueprint

5. Design a board game, card game

6. Do a charcoal drawing

7. Create a detailed chart/diagram

8. Perform a choral reading

9. Present a Coin Collection

10. Make a collage

11. Illustrate a book

12. Write a letter to a friend, to a relative, to the editor

13. Write a short story

14. Draw a comic series

15. Write a computer program

16. Build a crossword puzzle

17. Design and sew a costume

18. Choreograph a Dance

19. Design and conduct a debate

20. Keep a journal/diary

21. Build a diorama

22. Set up a display/demonstration/performance

23. Direct a skit/play/musical

24. Perform a monologue

25. Design sets for a play

26. Write an essay, poem, fable, fairy tale, haiku, children’s book, limericks, newspaper article, novella, sonnet, textbook, field manual, magazine article, repair instructions, cookbook, sci-fi story, report, pamphlet, guidebook, biography.

27. Record a family tree

28. Make a film/video

29. Design a greeting card

30. Fund and invite a guest speaker

31. Give a lecture

32. Tell a story aloud to children

33. Design a teacher’s lesson plan

34. Create and build a scale drawing and model

35. Draw a map and legend

36. Create and hang a mobile

37. Design and paint a community mural

38. Create a museum exhibit

39. Compose a piece of music

40. Broadcast the news

41. Create an oil/acrylic painting

42. Design a bulletin board

43. Conduct an interview

44. Hold a press conference

45. Write a TV series

46. Research and write a new law

47. Make a joke book

48. Design a product package

49. Perform a pantomime

50. Create a photo essay

51. Take and develop black and white photographs

52. Make a poster

53. Put on a puppet show

54. Perform and record a radio theater

55. Do Reader’s Theater

56. Create a scrapbook

57. Create a sculpture

58. Do silk-screening

59. Do Stitchery

60. Conduct a survey

61. Record a song, chant, natural sounds, etc.

62. Construct a terrarium

63. Build furniture (wood, cardboard, trees, plastics, etc)

64. Create a timeline

65. Design a travel brochure

66. Make a documentary

67. Design a video simulation

68. Create a watercolor painting

69. Put on a fashion show

70. Sew clothing

71. Reupholster a chair

72. Do colored pencil drawings

73. Publish a magazine

74. Create a blog

75. Start an organization

76. Design a website

77. Create bumper stickers

78. Build a (you name it!)

79. Host an athelectic competition

80. Create jewelry

81. Clean a park, river, sidewalk, windows

82. Take action to make a place better

83. Cook an international dinner

84. Sew a flag

85. Make wallpaper

86. Learn a musical instrument

87. Make candy

88. Start a band

89. Construct a toy or a puzzle

90. Recite a famous speech

91. Reenact an event

92. Make a uniform

93. Make your own tools

94. Bake a pie/cake/cookies

95. Put on a cooking show

96. Hold a sale

97. Learn a language

98. Make pizza from scratch

99. Go fishing

100. Talk story

Place-Based Learning

Place-Based Learning

Free Resources Below

Read James' article featured in

James Lewicki

Free Resource Packet

Projects Unite Efforts

James Lewicki's Publications

We cannot solve the problems of the world at the same level of thinking when we created them. -

Get in Touch!

Get in Touch!

Place-based Learning

Project Ideas