Hands-On Geography Activities Leading to Community-Based Learning

Kolb described experiential learning simply as the process of acquiring knowledge through experience. This year-long project engaged students in seventh-grade social studies classrooms in southwest Michigan. The effort was collaboratively led by university faculty and a classroom teacher with support of school administration. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the project, including hands-on activities completed by students and the process that was employed to evaluate student learning of geographic concepts and how the project fits into Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. Student and teacher comments are also included to show their perceptions of the activities and project.