This study explores how university students (i.e., undergraduate and graduate students) participating in a place-based outreach program practiced teaching strategies on four field trips. The outreach program, Learning in Place-Based Environments (LPBE), provided opportunities for the university students to teach fifth grade students about place, including through focusing on the natural attributes of a place, promoting sustainable living in a place, and integrating the diverse meanings that a place holds (see Semken, 2005). This research is informed by the literature on science teacher effectiveness, science outreach programs that provide teaching opportunities, learning to teach through apprenticeship, and place-based education. The intended and enacted curricula of the LPBE program were studied. The field trip station lesson plans were reviewed for evidence of place-based teaching strategies. Videotapes of the university students teaching fifth grade students in different outdoor locations were analyzed according to the types of teaching strategies that they practiced. In addition, the frequency and co-occurrence of various teaching strategies were examined. Overall, the university students practiced relatively few place-based teaching strategies. Also, challenges that the university students faced while teaching fifth grade students on the field trips are outlined. This study has implications for developing training opportunities for educators to learn about how to incorporate place into their educational programs.

Keywords: place-based education, science outreach programs, undergraduate and graduate students.