CO-SEED Mission and Overview

“I'm never going back! Real world projects make my physics students eyes light up like they never have before.” — Bill Church, Littleton High School, Littleton, NH

It's nine o'clock on a weekday morning and many classrooms are empty. Looking out the window you see students writing poetry in their schoolyard. In the town woodlot a forester helps 10th graders to measure trees to learn how to assess and manage the woodlot. Middle school students are in the classrooms of the elementary school teaching the history of their town. Solid waste managers are consulting with the 5th grade about local recycling issues. Students are attending school board meetings and participating on planning committees. The community is becoming a better place because of their hard work.

CO-SEED first started in 1997. It is a place-based education initiative aimed at building an ecologically literate citizenry. CO-SEED communities and schools work together to restructure school curriculum to study local places, solve community issues and use the resources close to the school. Partnerships between schools, higher education institutions, community-based learning centers, and other community organizations offer rich opportunities to simultaneously enhance student achievement, community vitality and environmental quality. This long-term project has incrementally built a network of schools engaged in exploring local ecosystems and environmental issues through community involvement as a sustainable way to achieve “home-based” ecological literacy.