What is the story of this place? Exploring a community through digital storytelling

Lacey Calvert
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:44:50 PDT

Place-based curriculum is essential to educating children about their communities, local environment, and landscape. The purpose of this place-based curriculum project was to provide learners experiences with local people, places, and things that reside outside the classroom, while addressing South Dakota history and social studies curriculum standards. This project used the online digital Story Maps platform along with written lesson plans to create a third-grade social studies curriculum that highlighted the local geography, history, and culture of the city of Aberdeen, SD, and surrounding area through a place-based educational lens. The elementary school students (and teachers) will have access to this material through a shared online access website (www.storymaps.arcgis.com). Through this project, I hope to facilitate students’ place attachment to a specific geographic location (Aberdeen) and support them in developing a sense of belonging and community.