Examples of Service-Learning

Elementary, Middle, and High School Examples || Language Arts Examples || Social Science Examples  || Science Examples || Top

Many people understand service-learning by reading about examples. Here are a few. Although these examples come from the core curricular areas of Language Arts, Social Science and Science, service-learning can work for almost any subject at any grade level.
If you are higher education, we have a link to 101 different service-learning projects !
Higher Education Service-Learning Ideas

Elementary, Middle, and High School Examples

In elementary school In 4th grade students partner with a nearby senior care facility. Students study human anatomy and the aging process and organize a "fashion show" for their elderly friends using the Native American apparel and jewelry which they study in history. Activities such as reading to their senior friends and transcribing letters reinforce reading and writing skills.

In middle school In 7th grade Science, students design, create, and maintain a garden located in a deserted lot in the back of the school. The garden, consisting of native California plants and ecosystems, is used as a focal point for the study of geology, ecology, and agriculture.

In high school In an American Democracy class, students volunteer at public or community based agencies, after brainstorming issues related to the theme of poverty. The teacher assigns readings related to the theme. Each student maintains a journal relating their experience to classroom learning.

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Language Arts Examples Service Project Ideas

Cross age tutoring: Literacy and Writing
Students in elementary, middle, or high school can help young children with their beginning reading skills. Tutors can arrange a once-per-week partnership where they walk to a local school and work individually with 1st or 2nd grade readers. The 1st and 2nd graders become excited when their "reading buddies" come to work with them individually.

In addition, tutors learn to teach reading skills which helps them read better and prepare them for the time that they have children of their own. Tutors write in logs and work in groups as a means of examining and improving their teaching skills. The teacher picks out readings that focus on people who have struggled with reading and the difficulties that they have faced. Activists from a local literacy group teach the students about community issues with literacy. Different teaching techniques are shared.

As the relationship developed, the elementary teacher began suggesting different readings that contained topical issues that needed to be covered. The tutors and the students would read and discuss different social issues together. As a culminating activity, the tutors and the students wrote a joint story together, that focused upon their relationship. Both parties wrote and illustrated the book. Copies were made for the participants and their parents.

Letter Writing Campaign
A teacher and students after reading The Outsiders became concerned about the growing gang and graffiti problem in their school. The teacher wanted to show the students that they had the power to effect change and that they could accomplish a great deal due to their power of writing. The project became known as the "The Pen," because it referred back to the phrase, "The pen is mightier than the sword." The students first decided that they needed to learn more about the issue. They wrote letters to local politicians, newspaper reporters, police officers, community leaders, and gang task force members to come to their classroom and explain the problem in greater detail. Guest speakers were invited to bring additional reading information and suggest potential solutions. Before each speaker arrived, the class brainstormed potential questions they might ask.

The class decided that the town provided very few after school opportunities for youth and that the few things that were provided, were poorly publicized. The class split into two groups. The first group created publicity literature for the youth opportunities that currently existed. Students were able to practice their editing and production skills as they carefully crafted messages to teach young people about current youth activities. These materials were distributed at local schools and community agencies.

The second group surveyed the student population as to their interests in a variety of afterschool activities. The class then wrote letters to the newspaper and local politicians about their findings, students' suggestions, and the potential benefits to the community. The class drafted a referendum for more youth services in their community. The class published a magazine that chronicled their experience.

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Social Science Examples Service Project Ideas

Economics/Government:
Poverty Studies/Sandwich program
Students in high school Economics class began with principle of economic scarcity. Through their studies they studied the economic breakdown of the United States by income, learned where the poverty line is designated, took part in exercises where they learned how much goods cost, and studied the trends towards increased percentages of poverty within their community. The classes decided that they wanted to work on the problem, centering on the issue of hunger.

The classes found community partners who supported a church that gave away soup and sandwiches. The students decided that they could make the sandwiches themselves, taking the burden off of the senior citizens at the church. The teacher made lessons on the economics of the sandwich as well as its nutritional value. Students wrote journal and performed skits around the topic of the food that they made for others. They educated community members and began building financial support to pay for their contribution.

By the project's third year, students leaders rotated each of the school's homerooms through the project. Student leaders organized the room, cleaned up, and taught other students about the problems of poverty in their community. Students engaged the media and local service clubs for contributions to the sandwich making project. All in all, over 1000 students made over 10,000 sandwiches for the needy in the community during the third year.

U.S. History: Retirement Home
Students, as part of their U.S. History class, adopted seniors, in order to learn more about the World War II. The students would come to the retirement home weekly. The students would ask their "original sources" questions about the times that they grew up and about the War. After each section in their text, students would brainstorm a series of questions that they would ask their "senior friend", including topics of social history, economics, culture, race relations, etc. The seniors were pleased to receive the visitors and have the opportunity of telling their life stories.

Besides visiting, the students would help with tasks around the retirement home. Some students would help serve dessert, others would help with social activities. Others would read and write letters for seniors whose eyesight and coordination was failing. The relationship was not without its problems and misunderstandings. The teacher and the retirement home director worked together to teach the students about the problems involved with the aging process. One potentially volatile situation was converted into a lesson on cross cultural and cross age communication.

The students learned skills in historiography as they synthesized the information gained from their original sources into a book that became a secondary source about the Second World War. The students also wrote primary source stories about "their senior friend." The publications were presented to seniors and students at a year end party, where all celebrated the project. Many of the students continued to visit the retirement home and their "senior friend."

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Science Examples Service Project Ideas

Community Gardens
At one school, a teacher spotted a plot of ground that was not being used and decided to start a community garden with the students. The teacher then began looking for ways to integrate the service with the curriculum being taught. The teacher began with soil and water testing. The class then studied the ecosystem that supports gardens and agriculture.

By this time, the food that they had been growing was nearly ripe. The students decided to give the food to a local homeless shelter after a speaker told them that shelters do not have very little in terms of fresh food. Upon harvesting, the students measured the amount of food they had produced and then, based upon a formula describing a balanced meal, calculated the amount of people that their garden had fed. The nutritional content of the food was also measured.

Around this time, the class discovered that the shelter that they were working with had a back yard that was not being used. The shelter said it would be very interested in its own community garden. The students then measured the dimensions of the garden, and made a presentation before the shelter's board of directors. The students then organized a day where they and their parents would help put the garden together. Within months, the shelter was growing its own fresh vegetables.

Creek Clean Up
Another school had a small creek that ran by the corner of the campus. That creek, through pollution and neglect, contained far less life and than it once had. In order to study the effects of pollution, the class studied the cleanliness of the water and the amount of life that lived in and around the creek. Using history texts, the students learned about the species that were once native to the area. The class decided to take action.

On a school day, the class organized a school-wide clean up of the creek. Many parents and community members participated in the project. Special safety instructions were given to students who descended to the banks near the creek. The local Conservation Corps also assisted in the clean up. During breaks, they taught the students about different techniques that helped preserve the wilderness. Students learned to be more "green" as they clean up the abuses of the past.

Months later, the class conducted follow up studies of the creek. They reported an increase in life and a decrease in toxins. After quantifying their results, the class then presented their findings to the local water quality board in their community. The chair of the board, after listening to the students tell their story, arranged for additional media coverage, including an award of a medal to the teacher and the students.

The teacher arranged for new students to return to the river sight in the following years. Benches were constructed so that people could sit and look at the rushing water. Other students painted a portrait of students cleaning up their river. That portrait was displayed at City Hall.

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