Our Town: Sustainable Places, Green Spaces
Revitalize communities and invigorate learning through interdisciplinary place-based programs on land use, brownfields redevelopment and sustainable communities. Support equity with content that teaches it. Take a program tour.
Topics. land use planning communities, habitats, brownfields, soil / water / toxicology, green building, environmental justice, public policy and government.
Audience. grades 6-8, 9-12, higher ed, adult ed
Disciplines. earth science, biology, environmental science, chemistry, civics, language arts, economics, design health
Career Connections. urban planning, civil and environmental engineering, HAZMAT, architecture and design, government, law, public health, GIS, geography, environmental policy, landscape architecture, construction and building trades.
Partners sought. Are you interested in making Our Town a part of your curriculum or the focus of an after school program? Are you a teacher educator that would you like to integrate the program into your courses? We're seeking partners interested in receiving on-going professional development, planning support, curriculum licensing and evaluation. Contact us to learn more.
Download the MI Earth Science and Biology content expectations for Our Town.
Click here to view Our Town program evaluation results.
Click here to view Our Town student projects.
Bring Our Town to your classroom or institution.
Get instructional materials in our Curriculum and Resource Center, or combine that with a professional development package to support the revision of units, courses or programs.
Interested in getting a quote? Complete the Interest Form for K12 Institutions or Higher Education.
- Create interdisciplinary courses or after school programs that use students’ communities as a context for learning.
- Engage students in hands-on projects related to community planning, habitat restoration, brownfields remediation and more. Perfect for service learning programs.
- Create "makeovers" for existing units and courses through a lens of sustainable communities.
- Integrate literacy and relevance into science and social studies content instruction.
- Access complete courses for credit recovery in science and/or social studies, and innovative drop-out prevention programs.
- Develop a new course to support project-based and place-based learning.
- Reframe science or social studies methods courses to emphasize interdisciplinary content, literacy across the curriculum, placed-based learning, and inquiry-based instruction.
- Develop hands-on, real world projects for courses in geography, environmental science, economics, government, and urban planning.
Learn about "Our Town" professional development packages designed for higher ed.
Infuse sustainability content and literacy skills into green jobs training programs focused on remediation, green building or revitalization.