The Y4Y Insider - April 2022
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Discovering One's Own Place
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Place-based education is more than a trend. It’s a philosophy that connects students to their community and environment through many disciplines. Those connections help young people become productive and invested adult citizens. This month’s State Coordinators Corner offers state agencies a wealth of partnership ideas, and practitioners can also “knock on doors” to give students the right guides for:
And don’t miss our Voices From the Field podcast guest, environmental educator Sarah Johnson, who shares best practices for helping students on the exciting journey of discovering their own place.
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Gathering STEAM
Powering Your STEM/STEAM Initiatives
Fly Your Name Around the Moon
Create Your Own Homunculus Nebula With Chandra and Hubble
STEMIE’s My S.T.E.M. Adventure App
STEMIE’s My S.T.E.M. Adventure app, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, is a fully accessible/born accessible app that guides families or other adults in children’s lives to engage in STEM activities with young children from birth to 5 years old. The app provides step-by-step guidance for families or teachers to lead young children, including those with disabilities, on adventures in their homes or neighborhoods to learn about STEM. The prototype is available and has been tested with families and practitioners with young children with disabilities. The team is developing more adventures and additional accessibility features this year.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
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Explore Humans in Space: Christa McAuliffe’s Lost Lessons in Space on Liquids in Microgravity, April 26, 7-8 p.m. ET
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NASA STEM: Explore Earth With GOES-T Weather Satellite, April 28, 5-6 p.m. ET
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Aeronaut-X: Shape Your Flight! May 9, 6-7 p.m. ET
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NASA STEM: STEM Teaching Tips for Teachers & Parents, May 24, 5-6 p.m. ET.
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Family Resources
Energy costs are rising, and salaries aren’t keeping pace. Before sweltering summer temperatures arrive, share the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program resource with families who may be struggling to afford their home power bills.
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Having trouble accessing your Y4Y certificate for a completed course? Look for this dashboard in the upper right corner when you’ve opened the relevant course tab, and click each completed section to reveal the “Download Certificate” button to access your document.
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State Coordinators Corner
Post of the Month
Are you looking to share new Y4Y content with your state’s grantees? Feel free to share the below Post of the Month on your social media accounts:
Place-Based Learning Partnerships in Your State
According to this month’s podcast guest and landscape-based environmental educator, Sarah Johnson, place-based learning gives students of all ages the important experience of becoming invested in all aspects of their home community through a better understanding of its “rocks to politics.” State coordinators can facilitate those relationships by reaching out to leadership of potential partner organizations with these goals in mind:
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Introducing them to 21st CCLC programming
- Helping them understand the critical relationship between community support of students and the community’s long-term success
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Getting their feedback on ways their agency or organization might partner with 21st CCLC programs
- Establishing a strong, permanent communication channel and action plan
Taking a page from the blog posts linked to this month’s issue of The Y4Y Insider, you might first consider the many aspects of place-based learning:
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Science. What is the geological and biological history of your region? What are its current features in these categories? If there are radical environmental differences among various areas in your state, what are the significances of those differences?
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Human History. Who are the people native to your state, and where are their descendants now? How and when did the introduction of Europeans shape the history that your state now celebrates? Students can explore the history behind how their state, city, and local streets got their names. In rural areas in particular, students might even live on lanes bearing the name of their own ancestors or family!
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Arts and Literature. Who are the artists and writers in your state? How do they impact the culture, and how does the culture impact their work?
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Civics. The significant role of local government is coming into sharper focus for communities around the country. From small-town courthouses to the governor’s office, what basic government functions can help students better understand their place?
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Career Pathways. How does local commerce and industry — whether historically based on plentiful natural resources, or recently developed based on community needs like technology or healthcare — impact the community success and culture?
Bearing these aspects of place-based learning in mind, you can open the door to partnerships for grantees through many avenues, beginning with universities and university extension offices in all relevant departments. Consider also reaching out to the following people and organizations:
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Science: park services; private-practice environmental scientists and landscape architects; museums; state and local chapters of geological societies and botany/gardening clubs; and publicly and privately maintained hiking trails, waterways, campgrounds, and other outdoor venues. STEM learning doesn’t stop at science. In the fields of engineering and technology, there are countless professional organizations, companies, and civil entities to potentially partner with!
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Human History: state and local historical societies and libraries; tribal elders; organizations like Freemasons, Shriners, and Daughters of the American Revolution.
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Arts and Literature: state and local art, music, and writers’ guilds; dedicated unions in any of these fields; privately operated performance companies such as local ballet, theater, and orchestra; bookstores — especially independent stores — known to feature local authors.
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Civics: state and local government, courthouses, urban planning and law enforcement offices; organizations like the Bar Association and Women’s Council; and elected or appointed officials at all levels of government, including school boards.
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Career Pathways: state and local commerce, employment and workforce guidance departments; labor unions; media outlets; military recruiters; and organizations like the Rotary Club.
So many professional organizations are eager to help the students who need them most, but they aren’t quite sure how. By making connections on behalf of grantees, you can help the leadership of those organizations understand that grants won through the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC program are the only longstanding federally funded out-of-school time programs. This fact speaks to your grantees’ ability — through rigorous structuring and oversight — to effectively identify the greatest community needs and partner in quality programming.
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Voices From the Field
Learning Your Own Place
Y4Y was excited to chat this month with Sarah Johnson, a landscape-based environmental educator. She shared some basics about environmental education and how out-of-school time is the perfect opportunity for discovering one’s own place. [Podcast]
Y4Y: Sarah, since our audience might have a wide range of thoughts on what “environmental education” means, can you please share what it means in your work?
SJ: Environmental education is the process of learning about the place where you are and your role within that community landscape. It’s investigating authentic concerns within the community and exploring how they are connected to the environment where you are and figuring out ways to engage with one’s community to participate and take action in making the world better for everything within it. Ultimately, it’s teaching people to know firsthand that they are not separate from their environment and rather are a valuable member of their community who has not only a responsibility but agency and skills to participate in civic life to create a future we all want to be part of.
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Sarah R. Johnson, environmental education specialist, is the founder of Wild Rose Education, based in Carbondale, Colorado. She designs and facilitates educator professional development workshops, teaches public lands courses, is a PolarTREC educator with the International Arctic Buoy Program, and facilitates a regional cohort of climate change educators.
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May 1 is May Day, which began as a Celtic spring celebration of flowers and ribbons, falling between the March equinox and June solstice. It evolved into a day to recognize labor rights, sparking the idea of Labor Day. Invite students to share special spring holidays in their families’ cultures, including their favorite ways to celebrate.
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May 2-6 is National Teacher Appreciation Week. Invite students to write a heartfelt message of thanks to their school-day teacher or teachers, counselors, and other educators who impact their daily lives.
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May 9 is Peter Pan Day in honor of beloved children’s playwright and author J. M. Barrie. Celebrate with a reader’s theater production of the story, and invite students to share their favorite things about being a kid that they’ll never want to let go of!
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May 17 marks 230 years since 24 stockbrokers met under a buttonwood tree on what is now Wall Street to form the New York Stock Exchange. This is a great opportunity to learn about the world of finance.
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May 14 marks 80 years since an act of Congress allowed women, for the first time, to enlist in noncombat military duties. Explore the role of women in the military today, from frontline combat to pilots to leadership, like U.S. Air Force General Lori Robinson, the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. military.
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May 22 is International Sherlock Holmes Day. Celebrate with a good mystery story or a classroom caper by leaving a trail of clues in the case of the missing cookies!
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Celebrate higher learning!
May 1-31, 2022.
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“When we fail to teach our children how to inhabit the places where they have been raised … then we also fail to teach them how to be at home anywhere.”
This quote and more wisdom throughout this month’s issue of The Y4Y Insider come from Paul Gruchow’s essay on place-based learning, Discovering the Universe of Home.
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Topical Tool Kit
This curated tool kit will help you support all aspects of student resilience as you wrap up the most challenging academic year to date and head into what promises to be a summer of social and emotional recovery.
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Explore place-based activities developed by the National Park Service (NPS) that give students opportunities to learn by exploring local natural resources.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter may contain links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to particular items is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, donation solicitations or products or services offered, on these outside sites, nor any organizations sponsoring the sites, whether financially or by website hosting.
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