Thecottonwoodschool.org Website Review

place-based education exploring our community through fieldwork and service. to provide a creative learning environment where students develop a sense of place and become stewards of the natural world and active. place-based education is a way of taking the walls down between school and the community. 7th graders identify a problem in the community and seek out policy-based solutions. all fall, the sixth grade clas* has focused on the human body, our 7th and 8th graders worked on an interdisciplinary project on weather and climate. and there were some various celebrations in the k-2 clas*rooms. this fall, our 1st and 2nd grade students have dug into the topic of plants and gardens. students explored the questions: why do people what and when can plants can be planted successfully in portland? to help find the answers, students ventured out to the south waterfront community garden, jean’s fa*m in se portland, and the sauvie island center. students observed plants, learned about what they need to grow, and even had an opportunity to bake apple tarts in an outside oven! the kindergarten clas* visited the portland art museum to explore family and identity in paintings. our third graders visited beacon rock in the columbia river gorge and viewed sturgeon (whose evolution dates back to the trias*ic era) at the bonneville dam and the clas* visited their community partner, the rice northwest museum of rocks and minerals keep updated with periodic cscs news and place-based education updates:         “field trips, stewardship & relationships: the cottonwood school” for friends of tryon creek portland tribune recognizes the ‘architects in schools’ program and cscs’s involvement a conversation with sarah anderson in “a place-based approach to pbl” at edutopia teaching tolerance grants in action: “bridges not walls” spotlight with 7th grade teacher emily conner by cscs fieldwork coordinator and place-based education specialist, sarah k. anderson