Place Matters

This article articulates a place-grounded rationale for outdoor learning through the Learning in Places (LiP) model, a decade-long collaborative effort to reimagine the purposes of science education. We argue that outdoor learning is not simply a change in instructional setting, but a shift in relationships among children, educators, families, and the socio-ecological systems they inhabit. Grounded in routine engagement with everyday environments such as schoolyards and neighborhoods, LiP positions humans as a part of, rather than apart from, the natural world. This orientation reshapes the questions learners ask, the phenomena they notice, and the responsibilities they take up. We describe how attention to place, layered histories, family knowledge, and affective engagement supports equitable, transdisciplinary science learning. In the context of climate change and persistent inequities, we contend that education must cultivate children’s capacities to participate as ethical decision-makers and changemakers in the places they share. Outdoor learning, when historicized and relationally grounded, becomes a practice of responsibility, connection, and future-making.