Service Learning

Picking up trash on the beach is service. Studying water samples under a microscope is learning. When students collect and analyze water samples, document their result, and present the results to a local pollution control agency - that is service-learning. 

Service-learning involves applying classroom learning through investigation of a community problem, planning ways to solve it, action through service, reflection on the experience and what was learned, and demonstration of results.  Service Learning enriches the learning experience, teaches civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

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There are two types of education: One should teach us how to make a living and the other should teach us how to live.  –John Adams

First-Class Citizens: Civics Isn't Just a Class

Civics education is part and parcel of everyday life at this school, which has become a laboratory of democracy, challenging widely held assumptions about how schools can and should operate. 

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Learning by Giving: Community Service as Classwork

Schools add the Golden Rule to the curriculum. As school-based volunteering soars nationwide, educators are fine-tuning their service initiatives to create serious community-based projects and tie them to academic standards. Read more here

Wetland Watchers: Kids Care for Their Environment

Through this nationally recognized service-learning project, students have become stewards of the area's fragile wetlands. 

School of environmental studies: Taking class outdoors

At this Minnesota school focused on problem solving, the academic program and the architecture were designed to promote interdisciplinary project-based learning.

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Additional information on Service Learning 

An overview of Service Learning and the programs of
Learn and Serve America. http://www.learnandserve.org/about/programs/index.asp

National Youth Leadership Council

For more than 25 years, NYLC has led a movement that links youth, educators, and communities to redefine the roles of young people in society. That movement is service-learning, and it empowers youths to transform themselves from recipients of information and resources into valuable, contributing members of a democracy.

http://www.nylc.org/?

Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of the Community Partner.

Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) supports the service-learning community in higher education, kindergarten through grade twelve, community-based initiatives and tribal programs, as well as all others interested in strengthening schools and communities using service-learning techniques and methodologies.

Service Learning web resources

Learn and Serve America

Click here or in the picture to watch video.

America’s young people – from kindergartners to university students – have the desire, energy and ability to make a real difference in their communities. Service-learning offers a unique opportunity for them to get involved in a tangible way by integrating community service projects with classroom learning.