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Given the ongoing socio-ecological crises, higher education institutions need curricular interventions to support students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed to create a sustainable future. Campus farms are increasingly becoming sites for sustainability and environmental education toward this end. This paper describes the design and outcomes of a farm-situated place-based experiential learning (PBEL) intervention in two undergraduate biology courses and one environmental studies course over two academic years. We conducted a mixed-method study using pre/post-surveys and focus groups to examine the relationship between the PBEL intervention and students’ sense of place and expressions of pro-environmentalism. The quantitative analysis indicated measurable shifts in students’ place attachment and place-meaning scores. The qualitative findings illustrate a complex relationship between students’ academic/career interests, backgrounds, and pro-environmentalism. We integrated these findings to generate a model of sustainability learning through PBEL and argue for deepening learning to encourage active participation in socio-ecological change. 

When implemented effectively, Place-Based Experiential Learning (PBEL) pedagogies have been shown through different studies to enhance student content knowledge, course engagement, critical thinking skills, and civic-mindedness. This research followed 10 semester long university courses, during one academic year, implementing PBEL pedagogies with a focus on urban farming. Courses came from a wide array of disciplines including courses focused on science, technology, engineering, or mathematics as well as many non-STEM courses. Students completed pre- and post-assessments to measure change in civic-mindedness, place attachment, situated sustainability meaning-making, and environmental scientific literacy. Statistically significant positive change with small to moderate effect sizes were found in student’s environmental scientific literacy, situated sustainability meaning-making, place attachment, and civic-mindedness. 

This research explores the role that place attachment and place meaning towards an urban farm play in predicting undergraduate students’ civic-mindedness, an important factor in sustainability and social change. In 2017 and 2018, three STEM courses at a private university in the Midwest incorporated a local urban farm as a physical and conceptual context for teaching course content and sustainability concepts. Each course included a four to six-week long place-based experiential learning (PBEL) module aimed at enhancing undergraduate STEM student learning outcomes, particularly place attachment, situated sustainability meaning-making (SSMM), and civic-mindedness. End-of-course place attachment, SSMM, and civic-mindedness survey data were collected from students involved in these courses and combined with institutionally provided demographic information. Place attachment and SSMM surveys, along with the course in which the students participated, were statistically significant predictors of students’ civic mindedness score. 

Having a STEM literate society, capable of questioning and being caring and compassionate citizens of the world is vital in a global society. This project utilized place-based education (PBE) and experiential learning, via a campus or community farm, to provide college students with contextual learning experiences that enhanced content knowledge, course engagement, critical thinking skills, and civic mindedness. The research in this paper focuses on the outcomes of a second year ecological biology course, at an urban institution, that integrated an approximately six week lesson incorporating the college’s urban farm. When compared to a control group, derived of students from the previous year, students in the treatment group had greater attachment to the farm, greater knowledge around civic activities, and statistically significant increases in scientific literacy skills. 

Campus agriculture projects are increasingly being recognized as spaces impactful to student engagement and learning through curricular and co-curricular programming; however, most campus farm activities are limited to agriculture or sustainability programs and/or cocurricular student clubs. Thus, campus farms are largely underutilized in the undergraduate curriculum, marking a need to explore the efficacy and impact of engaging a diverse array of disciplinary courses in the rich social, environmental, and civic context of local sustainable agriculture. The Farm Hub program presented here incentivizes instructors to refocus a portion of existing course content around the topic of local, sustainable agriculture, and reduces barriers to using a campus farm as a situated learning context for curricula. A pedagogical framework founded in place-based experiential learning (PBEL) theory was developed to guide instructors in the development and implementation of 4–6-week inquiry-based PBEL modules embedded in existing courses. The framework was converted into a research protocol to quantify program implementation fidelity and PBEL best practice adherence for the proposed lesson plans (intended) and their implementation (applied). The framework enables the development of a cohesive cross-curricular program so that the impact of implementation fidelity and best practice adherence to student learning outcomes in scientific literacy, place attachment and meaning, and civic mindedness can be assessed and the results utilized to develop a formal farm-situated PBEL pedagogical taxonomy. This framework can be applied to PBEL curriculum in natural spaces beyond campus farms.