Geoscience education research strongly supports the use of place-based approaches to effectively teach Earth science content, particularly when working with general education students and members of underserved communities with traditional connections to the landscape. Place-based approaches are particularly powerful because they draw upon the personal connection of the learner to the landscapes under study. Successful geoscience programs have also long identified the value of field experiences in building excitement for geology and developing geoscience expertise. The reality of modern teaching environments, however, reduces access to traditional instructor-led field trips due to financial and accessibility limitations. Can the use of place-based approaches that draw upon and empower student connections to the landscape provide a bridge between these proven techniques? This presentation explores the use of case studies and virtual field trips developed by students to investigate and share the landscapes they care about as a partial solution to this challenge. How, and to what extent, empowering the student voice in the study of geology produces learning outcomes comparable with geoscience learning via instructor-led case studies and field trips will be examined by comparing student and instructor directed case studies, actual and virtual field trips involving general education students at liberal arts and community colleges.