Last Friday’s visit to learning experience at the Brooklyn Navy Yard really generated some interesting observations and discussion. I hope everyone came away with more questions than answers. Some of the questions I left with I’ll offer to you, so feel free to respond in the comments!
What places will your students learn about? What questions will they ask before the experiential or place-based activity? What will they ask during and after the activity? What methods will they use to address those questions, and what data or information will they uncover? How will they document and reflect on their learning experiences?
Please contribute your place-based activities and assignments to the place-based learning toolkit (membership is open to all!) and document, assess, and reflect on these activities with the activity template.
My department is Hospitality Management and I do already bring my students to the Brooklyn waterfront and we as a department are fortunate to have garden space at the Yard so often we do pose questions to our students. Here are some questions that I would present to my students in our introduction course:
How does an industrial park on the waterfront affect tourism?
What significance does BLDG 92 hold for the local community?…an historian?… a Brooklyn Navy Yard business owner?…a descendant of a Naval employee?…
What does a closed “park” mean to the local community? What “belongs” to the community? Who is the community?
What opportunities are available to you at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?
Hi everyone,
I heard great things about your Navy Yard experience, and loved the pictures – sorry to have missed it!
Anne mentions the Activity Template in her post above – I’ve uploaded a Microsoft Word document version of the template to the Files area, for your use.
I’m in the Mathematics Department, and in place-based activities the question of “What does this have to do with math?” is always present. Sometimes we visit a place with a particular mathematical question in mind (in which case the question is already answered), but sometimes I leave it up to my students to create mathematical questions around place (and then try to answer them!).
Best to all,
Jonas