Service-Learning
is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community
service with instruction to enrich the learning experience and teach civic
responsibility. Through
service-learning, young people—from kindergarteners to college students—use
what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems. They not only
learn the practical applications of their studies, they become actively
contributing citizens through the service they perform.
What Service-Learning
Looks Like?
If school students collect trash out of an urban streambed,
they are providing a valued service to the community as volunteers. If school
students collect trash from an urban streambed, analyze their findings to
determine the possible sources of pollution, and share the results with
residents of the neighborhood, they are engaging in service-learning.
In the service-learning example, in addition to providing an
important service to the community, students are learning about water quality
and laboratory analysis, developing an understanding of pollution issues, and
practicing communications skills. They may also reflect on their personal and
career interests in science, the environment, public policy or other related
areas. Both the students and the community have been involved in a
transformative experience.
Coins for a Cause
Beginning February 28 Lipscomb Academy Elementary School
will embark on its own school wide service-learning project called Coins for a Cause. Over
the next month we have asked students to “earn” money through serving others to
give to Mission Lazarus. Students will also engage in several different
learning experiences at school to connect their service to Honduras. For instance, second grade has mapped out the
foundation size of a Honduran adobe brick house. You might see it by the flagpole during
carpool. In PE students are walking or
running the distance it would take for a typical Honduran student to walk to
school. In Science students will be
investigating and experimenting with water purification.
Each of these examples above shows how service-learning is
integrating meaningful community service with instruction and reflection in
order to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and serve
those who are in need.
