Place-based education is an education model that uses the community as the context for learning, including it's unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art. Student work focuses on community needs and interests and community members serve as resources and partners in teaching and learning.

The Rural School and Community Trust, NOAA’s partner in this pilot, has found that this local focus has the power to engage students academically, pairing real-world relevance with intellectual rigor, while promoting genuine citizenship and preparing people to respect and live well in any community they choose.

One goal of the LFK Project is to preserve the interviews for future use by the public and researchers. Interviews will be stored in the online LFK Database for this purpose. Additionally, students will work with community members to create local projects that directly use the information from the interviews. These projects are part of the place-based education model. More about using the interviews in local communities…