The Center for School Change (Minnesota) encourages service learning, school-based entrepreneurship, family and community involvement in schools, and the state policies that encourage such approaches. Examples are presented of school and community programs supported by the Center, as well as the Center's efforts to advocate for such programs. (SV)

Twelve theme articles discuss service learning and reflection in agricultural education, student perspective on service learning, Future Farmers of America, character education, intergenerational projects, agricultural communications, and service learning as advocacy. (SK)

Project-based service learning emphasizes educational opportunities that are interdisciplinary, student-centered, collaborative, and integrated with real-world issues and practices. Teachers have found that environments which foster academic achievement through hands-on, authentic learning can motivate students by engaging them in their own…

Experiential education, and more specifically service-learning, connects students with a different kind of education. Moreover, service-learning provides the opportunity for students to listen to voices seldom heard in academia. Experiential learning and service-learning have taken on an important role in contemporary schooling and are being…

Prominent school-to-work observers see a close connection between service-learning and school-to-work programs. Major components of service-learning are as follows: active student participation, thoughtfully organized experiences, focus on community needs and school/community coordination, academic curriculum integration, structured time for…

Describes how elementary school teachers can develop service learning projects that educate for social justice in order to promote change as opposed to charity. Provides examples of how charitable projects can be changed into social justice projects. Discusses how service learning projects can be done without leaving the school grounds. (CMK)

Addresses what service learning is, how it can advance activism, and why service learning should be incorporated in a course on women and violence. Describes the project, the Hate Crimes Service Learning Project (San Diego, California), undertaken in a Women and Violence course in spring 1998. (CMK)

Focuses on the use of service learning in music education, particularly at the secondary and university levels. Provides background information on service learning and addresses the benefits of this approach. Discusses how to develop a service learning program, the activities, and assessment. (CMK)

Details a course for teaching ethics to undergraduates. Argues that participation in service-learning experiences teaches students about moral philosophy and ethical principles for psychologists, and helps them become more sensitive to complex ethical dilemmas involved in psychology and related fields. Reports that students' course evaluations are…

Nearly 100 Minnesota secondary schools offer community service-learning courses. Assessment methods include journal writing, self-assessment, research papers, site observations, and performance evaluation by agency supervisors. A Rochester high-school teacher designed a "community interaction" standard that students may fulfill by…

In 1999-2000, a field study of eight North Carolina schools was conducted; four senior project schools and four control schools were selected. Researchers identified four treatment schools that had institutionalized senior projects for at least 4 years, with all seniors participating in senior projects and with all the program components (research…

Middle school teachers are accountable for helping young adolescents master a daunting number of basic skills and concepts. On the other hand, they are also expected to help their students develop a social conscience during what is arguably the most egocentric stage of their social development. This article presents a service learning project that…

The future of rural schools is inextricably linked to the future of their surrounding communities, and service learning is a powerful tool for capitalizing on those links. Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that respond to community needs while furthering the academic goals of students. Service learning…

This bulletin focuses on the method that teacher/authors use to connect curriculum with community: service-learning. The bulletin's introduction notes that, although service-learning projects can occur within any subject area, they have a particular suitability for the social studies, given the discipline's focus on the skills, values, and…

This curriculum unit is part of a larger unit on women's history that allows students to explore the many ways that history has been recorded, including quilting. The unit teaches students how women used quilts as their pens to record issues of their time. Students then connect this to their own lives by expressing contemporary issues through a…