About the National Place-Based Education Conference

Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative spearheaded the first Place-Based Education Conference in November 2011 to provide informative, inspirational content to support attendees’ efforts to be practitioners, resources, and leaders for environmental stewardship and place-based education in their communities. Two hundred people gathered at at the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, to support each other in doing just that. And attendance has increased steadily to each event with 2023 seeinng record attendance of 374 people from across the U.S. and the globe. This increase in participation seems to parallel an increased interest in and understandnig of the power of place-based teaching and learning.

Once an annual now a biennial event, 2025 marks the 9th PBE Conference and the second held at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. And although the event has always been held in Michigan, it has always drawn place-based education practitioners from much farther afield to share, learn and support one another. 

The National PBE Conference is special gathering that connects a community that believes in the power of our connections to place to increase joy, relevance, and meaning in education. It is an opportunity to clarify a shared sense of purpose, expand networks and toolkits, and deepen our collective resilience to teach and learn through the places we are most connected to—our communities.