Dr. Bill Doyle, a Faculty Center Fellow from the Honors College, will convene a faculty learning group this fall on place-based education. The group will start by reading The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education by Tom Vander Ark, Emily Liebtag, Nate McClennen. The book offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and backgrounds and is perfectly suited to UNLV faculty, as it dispels the notion that place-based education is an approach limited to those who can afford it as the authors describe how schools in diverse contexts—urban and rural, public and private—have adopted place-based programs as a way to better engage students.

This book identifies six defining principles of place-based education:
1. Embeds learning everywhere and views the community as a classroom.
2. Is centered on individual learners.
3. Is inquiry based to help students develop an understanding of their place in the world.
4. Incorporates local and global thinking and investigations.
5. Requires design thinking to find solutions to authentic problems.
6. Is interdisciplinary.

Books are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You can pick it up at the Faculty Center, or you may purchase the book on your own.

The faculty learning group will meet in person once per month:

Monday, September 12
Monday, October 17
Monday, November 14

Time:  4:00pm