New research points to the future of education as online, student-centered, collaborative, and community-based--all largely absent from today's educational landscape. This timely guide shows middle, high school, and college students how to undertake research to address challenges in their curriculum and communities. The approach is deliberately…

Many scholars and practitioners have asserted the value of opportunities for young children to participate in projects that inspire positive civic engagement. A National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Position statement stresses civic engagement as an important focus for powerful and purposeful learning in elementary social studies. The…

Project-based learning is an example of powerful social studies learning in which student engage in active inquiry. Action civics is a relatively new educational practice in which students "act as citizens" through a cycle of research, action, and reflection about problems they care about in their community. "Building Civic…

Every community has areas--public parks, schoolyards, sidewalks--that are neglected, vandalized, or just plain run down. Young people can help clean up those places by getting involved in a community cleanup project. As explained in this bulletin, a community cleanup is a project in which volunteers of all ages work together to spruce up a chosen…

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)

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…

This monograph highlights the projects that high school and middle level students have initiated when they have seen a need in their communities, researched the need, and then figured out a way to answer the need. The monograph categorizes these state and national award-winning, self-initiated community projects as follows: aiding the…

This packet contains lesson plans with real-life service projects that students can do throughout the school year, from September 2000 to August 2001. The lesson plans in the packet provide teachers with flexibility to offer them to students as young as grade 5 and as old as grade 12. The lesson plans, although essentially social studies, service…

A critical exploration of the meaning and function of community is the focus of this curriculum unit. It is proposed that students develop projects that are designed to contribute to a community in which they are involved, positing that the leadership and networking skills these students develop over the course of the semester provide them with…

Some educators contend that students who engage in activities related to school subjects learn more efficiently and more effectively, and remember what they have learned much longer than students who do not. Service-Learning (S-L) can provide a central focus around which educational change can occur. Moreover, S-L enhances the ideas promoted by…

Relates how a local teen court was established in Knox County, Illinois. Discusses the teen court concept, the purpose of such courts, and their relationship to official courts. Describes the Knox County Teen Court's development of a Web site and the benefits that it has brought to the community. (DSK)

Presents 10 ideas for service learning projects designed for elementary schools. Includes having students do local history projects complete with interviews and artifacts, learn about community volunteering, interact with the elderly, care for the environment, recycle materials, and hold canned food drives. (MJP)

Outlines approaches for student evaluation in service learning projects. Maintains that most service learning project participants' goals fall into three broad areas: civic development, academic achievement, and personal or social development. Assessment in these areas can be accomplished through tabulation of service hours, student journals, and…

Profiles Active Citizenship Today (ACT), a social studies service learning program for middle and high school students. In ACT, students explore their community, identify problems, examine public policy, explore their options, and take action. Includes unit excerpts from the ACT teacher's handbook. (MJP)