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Place-based
education
in action

  • 24,810
    hours spent by middle schoolers learning in the living classrooms of Portland’s rivers, mountains, forests, and oceans as part of our standards-aligned, place-based environmental education curriculum, which involves weekly field studies around the region
  • 7,000+
    hours growing food in the school garden every student, 1 hour a week for the entire year, across nine grade levels
  • 1,285
    hours of service learning by middle schoolers pulling invasive ivy, cleaning rivers and beaches, marking storm drains and farming with partners
  • 54
    community partners

In a single school year, our students spend thousands of hours engaging deeply with the city and region we call home, through field studies, service learning, and partnership with community organizations.

2025–26 school year · About the data

Sunnyside Environmental School

Service learning, environmental education and place-based learning are the cornerstones of Sunnyside Environmental School’s curriculum. They are woven into every student’s week, from the school garden to the State Capitol. Our program deeply integrates service learning with storyline methodology, field study and outdoor learning. The excellence of our teaching staff and learning environment are essential to SES’s success in building belonging, engagement, and impact. Since its founding as the Environmental Middle School in 1994, Sunnyside has spent 32 years fostering deeply rooted connections between students and the places they live.

Being a leader and tending our community

  • 2,880 hours

    mentoring 188 first-, second- and third-grade buddies, plus about 900 hours helping run the cafeteria, recess, school events and two stage productions

  • 1,800 sack lunches

    with handwritten cards for about 500 neighbors facing food insecurity (with Beacon Village), plus blankets and supplies gathered for local shelters and organizations by 135 students

  • 260 hours

    of arts and culture: calacas for Día de los Muertos with Ofrenda Oregon, wreaths with Mujeres Luchadores Progresistas, and public art (orca fins, a QSA mural, 20 painted salmon)

Using their voice for change

  • $10,000 P-CEF climate grant

    written and won by students, who then helped build the outdoor classroom with City Repair and PSU; they presented their work to P-CEF funders and the PPS superintendent

  • 90 hours

    writing testimony and lobbying at the State Capitol for HB 4134, a wildlife funding bill, with Environment Oregon

  • 37 students

    joined a youth-led climate strike

Since 1994

Lifetime impact of the program

For more than three decades, Sunnyside students have carried what they learn into the places where decisions get made.

  • Shaping local and state policy

    Students have testified before Portland City Council in support of the city’s ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on endangered status for orcas, and to state lawmakers on the Elliott State Forest and HB 4134. A second-grade campaign, “Loam not Foam,” pushed to replace polystyrene lunch trays and was part of the movement toward Oregon’s school polystyrene ban.

  • Taking their case to state leaders

    An 8th-grade cohort worked with local scientists and advocates to produce a video on the proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal and delivered it to Governor Kate Brown, the State Treasurer and senators. Students also attended Our Children’s Trust hearings in Eugene and Portland in support of youth climate plaintiffs.

  • Teaching beyond our walls

    Middle schoolers wrote a curriculum on local wildlife and brought it to dozens of PPS elementary schools. Sunnyside’s 2013 Energy Teach-In, which brought experts from across the region to help students weigh the world’s energy choices, drew coverage from the Portland Tribune and the Zinn Education Project.

  • Alumni who keep leading

    Graduates include author, activist and scientist Brook Thompson, and recent alumni interned with Environment Oregon and the Hawaii Wildlife Fund in summer 2026.

How it works

Place-based learning and service are woven into all aspects of Sunnyside’s curriculum.

Themed years

Each student completes three of four standards-aligned themed years in mixed-grade (6–8) classrooms.

  • Ocean
  • River
  • Forest
  • Mountain

  • An integrated K–8 community

    Weekly buddy time with first, second and third graders; rotating campus stewardship duties; a weekly 60-minute garden class; and service projects across the city and region.

  • A deep partner network

    54 community organizations host our weekly field studies and service projects.

About the data: figures cover the 2025–26 school year (192 students, grades 6–8) and come from teacher reports and school records. Some participation counts are estimated. Full data: Service by the Numbers 2026 workbook.

Keep this going

Add your name to the community letter asking the Portland School Board to keep Sunnyside K–8 and environmental.

3,500+ people have signed Add my name

What it means for kids

In families’ own words

Stories from parents, alumni, staff and neighbors who signed the letter. Shared with permission and reviewed by PTSA volunteers.

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