Community-Based Learning

Northeast Kansas City and the broader community offers many opportunities and resources to deepen learning experiences. By partnering with the community, learning is relevant to students because it’s rooted in their lived experiences.

Community Resources

  • PH Community Gardens and Orchards

  • PH Coffee

  • Kessler Park

  • Maple Park

  • Independence Plaza

  • Cliff Drive

  • The Concourse

  • Kansas City Museum

  • Backdoor Pottery

  • Sala de Arte

Downtown Resources

  • Nelson Atkins Art Museum

  • WWI Museum

  • Kansas City Libraries

  • UMKC Special Collections andArchives

  • Print League KC

  • Union Station

  • City Council Meetings

  • Kansas City Young Audiences

  • Kansas City Zoo

  • Scraps KC

  • Base Academy of Music

Arts & Making

Arts and making provide students opportunities to learn new knowledge and skills, communicate their unique stories and perspectives, receive feedback from real audiences, and help meet the needs of their community through exhibitions and mutual aid projects.

Lego Block Printing. Print League KC.

Zine Collection at the UMKC Special Collections and Archives.

Arts and making projects include:

  • Studying the history of zines as publications for social change and creating a community zine to share stories and events in NE KC

  • Studying the art of block printing with Lego and creating posters for a local organization or neighborhood initiative

  • Learning the chemistry of baking and enjoying baked goods during morning circle

  • Sewing and mending clothes for ourselves and neighbors to create more and buy less

  • Performing at a PH Coffee open-mic night

Nature & Play

In a learning environment that emphasizes nature and play, curiosity and imagination guide students’ questions and help them build connections with their own bodies and with other living and non-living beings.

North Terrace Lake, Kessler Park.

An emphasis on nature and play also provides opportunities for students to plan and organize day and overnight trips like, 

  • Camping at Coler Mountain Campground and engaging in the arts and nature at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas

  • Volunteering at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Flint Hills, Kansas

The Concourse Park Slide and Courts.

Our community is full of spaces to explore social and natural phenomena and learn relevant knowledge and skills through cooperative play. For example, we can learn about,

  • Invasive species and ecological (im)balance while making observations in Kessler Park and researching the impact of goats (i.e. Goat Local) on ecological restoration 

  • Velocity and momentum while sliding at Concourse Park and collecting and calculating mass, distance, and time data

  • Teamwork and strategy while playing pickleball and futsal at Independence Plaza Park 

  • The nitrogen cycle and the impacts of runoff while fishing and collecting water samples at the North Terrace Lake in Kessler Park

North Forest, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Klip Collective, Infinite Wave, 2022.

Community Circles

Sitting in a circle removes a sense of individualism and hierarchy and helps create a focus on collectivism and cooperation. When learning in a circle, everyone and their ideas are seen and heard.

In a circle,

  • We engage in community rituals to begin and end our time together as well as rituals to honor the seasons of our lives and celebrate milestones and holidays

  • We share our thoughts, ideas, and feelings and tell stories of our unique experiences

  • We share who we are and our aspirations

  • We share our joys and sorrows, and when conflict occurs, we engage in restorative justice practices

  • We engage in anti-racism/oppression education as we reflect on history and our community