Written by Donna Tully, Professional Learning Coach
This April, we welcomed 48 educators, leaders, and partners from across the United States and Canada to the 2026 Place Network Spring Conference. Participants traveled from 10 states — Illinois, Michigan, Wyoming, Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Maine, Washington, Missouri, and Delaware — as well as Alberta, Canada, bringing diverse perspectives, stories, and experiences grounded in their local places and communities.
While the conference explored themes connected to Nature as Teacher and learning from ecological systems, the core of the week was the Place-Based Education Challenge-Solution Experience – a multi-day, learner-centered process woven throughout the conference. Participants stepped into the role of learners themselves, identifying authentic place-based challenges from their own schools and communities, designing potential solutions, engaging in peer feedback, and ultimately creating public products to showcase their thinking.
The experience began with participants brainstorming and unpacking real challenges through activities like the “Gripe Jam” and the “Branches & Roots Protocol,” helping educators move beyond surface-level frustrations to identify root causes, spheres of influence, and meaningful opportunities for action. From there, participants used design thinking processes to generate and test solution ideas, refine proposals through peer review, and collaboratively design public product criteria.
The week culminated in a science-fair-style public exhibition where participants showcased visual conversation starters explaining the challenges they explored and the solutions they designed. The exhibition created space for rich conversation, feedback, and celebration, while also modeling the power of authentic public products in place-based learning. For this culminating event, conference participants were joined by several members of the Teton Science Schools Board, adding another layer of authentic audience, connection, and support for the work happening across the network.
Throughout the week, participants also engaged in breakout sessions, field experiences, school tours, collaborative planning, and conversations that stretched far beyond scheduled sessions. Educators hiked mountain trails, attended student exhibitions, explored community-connected learning experiences, and spent evenings around bonfires and shared meals building relationships with colleagues from across North America.
The breakout sessions became one of the most impactful parts of the week. Sessions focused on the Place Triangle and introductory place-based education helped participants better understand how ecology, culture, and economy can serve as meaningful lenses for connecting learning to local communities and experiences. Educators also repeatedly highlighted the sessions centered on mapping tools, leadership, implementation data, and long-term research around place-based education, appreciating the opportunity to explore both practical tools and evidence of sustained growth over time.
The conference concluded with project exhibitions, gratitude, reflection, and goal-setting as participants prepared to return home, carrying new ideas, new relationships, and renewed energy for the work ahead. More than anything, the week served as a reminder that place-based education helps students and educators see themselves as active participants in the life of their communities and places.
One participant perhaps captured the spirit of the week best when reflecting on the variety of sessions offered: there was space to gain foundational understanding, challenge assumptions, gather practical tools, and imagine what might be possible next.
And that balance – between inspiration and action – is exactly what the Place Network Spring Conference strives to create each year.
To everyone who joined us this year: thank you for bringing your curiosity, creativity, vulnerability, and commitment to the community.
And for those who could not attend this year – we hope you will join us next spring!
Save the Date
2027 Place Network Spring Conference
April 20–23, 2027
We are already looking forward to gathering again for another week of learning, connection, challenge, and inspiration rooted in place.