On February 8, educators gathered at the Tacoma Professional Development Center to learn about Community Asset Mapping and how it can be used to connect both teachers and students to place. By using online mapping tools and naturalist observation skills, participants explored the area around the workshop site, and considered the potential assets and resources available in their own communities, as well. The day concluded with a walking field trip to the nearby Grace Church Community Garden, where we saw a deer bound across the street and subsequently a deer fence around the garden plots!
Teachers started making connections between the resources available in the neighborhood and opportunities for teaching and learning, in science and beyond. One participant left the workshop with a goal: “I am planning a walking field trip with my kindergarten students to study trees in our schoolyard.”
