This seven to eight week hands-on Marine Debris Clean-up Project used a service project to provide an introduction of marine science ecology, watershed interrelationships, the scientific method, and environmental stewardship to 8th grade middle school students. It utilized inquiry based learning to introduce marine debris sources and impacts to…

This paper compares how two universities, Iowa State University and the University of Saskatchewan, exploit a service-learning and authentic learning approach to instructional design. Both programs emphasize student engagement and responsibility, as well as projects that have social significance. At the same time, the courses offered by the two…

Background: Service learning can enrich students' knowledge, skills and commitment to occupational goals while positively affecting communities. Undergraduate students in a course on obesity engaged in service learning by assisting with a family-based obesity prevention program, Getting Into Fitness Together (GIFT). Purpose: The impact of GIFT on…

Mentoring is often considered a gift of time and resources that a mentor gives to a mentee. However, research suggests that mentoring has benefits specifically for the mentor. This study analyzes written reflections of twenty-five mentors who took part in a National Science Foundation-funded program that encouraged middle-school girls to engage in…

The Health, Exercise, and Sport Science (HESS) faculty at Texas Tech University, along with many of its graduate and undergraduate students, have been working with overweight youth since the Fun & Fit program launched in 2004. The collaborative effort between Tech and the Lubbock Independent School District, funded by a Carol M. White Physical…

The purpose of the study was to examine students' expected and observable civic engagement in a Montessori Erdkinder-based middle school classroom. Research questions included: (a) In what ways is civic engagement addressed in the Montessori Erdkinder-based middle school explicit curriculum? (b) How does the expected civic engagement in the…

Over a decade ago, Barr and Tagg (1995) declared that a shift had occurred in higher education from an instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm. A central element in this new paradigm is learner-centered assessment. While a growing body of literature suggests that this approach to assessment is a best practice in higher education pedagogy, it…

The Center for Global Education at Marymount University offered unparalleled academic, experiential, and cultural exposure to 17 Marymount University graduate students and two professors who participated in a service-learning project in Porbandar, India, on January 1-18, 2010. The program focused on teaching PreK-7 grades through an integrated…

Hidalgo County, Texas, is one of the poorest in the country. The population in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is 85% Mexican-American. Underprepared for college and juggling full time jobs, their own children, and sometimes dysfunctional extended families, students often do not expect to succeed. I recently taught a Creative Writing course which…

Background: Service-learning in the Service-Learning Asian Network (SLAN), is organized as part of the academic structure of member institutions, and includes both international and community (domestic) service-learning. SLAN began with the exchange of students between SLAN institutions and has progressed to multicultural service-learning exchange…

Background: In recent years, more and more secondary schools in Hong Kong begin to employ service learning in designing student learning activities. A vast majority of these attempts is developed based on the philanthropic ideas of altruism, love and care; it involves serving elderly people living in the elderly homes far away from the school…

Background: The Service-Learning and Research Scheme (SLRS) is the showcase of Lingnan's Service-Learning model, which is the manifestation of Lingnan University's Liberal Arts education and mission "Education for Service". The scheme was a pilot project, from 2004 to 2005, which led to the development of a University-wide protocol for…

Service learning promotes social-emotional and academic development through active engagement in community activities. It empowers students to think beyond themselves and to develop a commitment to serve others. In so doing, service learning builds connections with school and community that are critically important in urban settings. This paper…

Dwindling resources for tertiary education, has resulted in reduced emphasis on intensive, small group, staff-student collaborative project-based service learning. However, training scientists to manage significant issues, such as sustainable water use, requires an ability to engage both industry and community stakeholders. This paper describes…

This study examined the efficacy of mandatory community service to prepare all high school students in a large urban school district for civic engagement. The principal hypothesis asserted that mandatory community service was insufficient in influencing students' civic engagement orientations (CEO) unless accompanied by opportunities for receiving…