Great Service Learning Projects!!!

Everyone had creative and interesting service learning projects pertaining to various social studies topics. These projects will be very beneficial for others to use in their classrooms and get a better understanding of what service learning consist of.

1. Chance- People often assumes that voting is the only way to participate in our society but this is a misunderstanding. Students will create podcasts, wikis, and write to their congressman in order to be aware of controversial issues and learn how to participate in a democracy.

2. Zahra- Students choose a subtopic then create a lesson plan regarding voting rights museum. The students teach younger students about this topic via Skype.

3. Michael- Students conduct interviews (oral history) with elderly people regarding their life experience. The stories/interviews are recorded and uploaded on YouTube.

4. Adam- Motivating people to register to vote and inform them about the current issues in our community and country. Students will observe trends in-school and in the community then present it to their peers.

5. Megan W- Students will learn about the issues concerning human trafficking and the purpose of informing others about this issue. Students will learn about any legislation that pertains to human trafficking, then they will create a podcast, slideshow, and brochure which will be compiled on a website for others to use.

6. Jen- Students will write letters to members of military branches (military letter writing campaign) and create a class wiki to write to military members. The wiki will allow military members to reply to the student’s letters and submit pictures, videos, etc.

7. Josh- Students will learn about war history before interviewing a veteran about his/her role in the war. This will allow students to honor veterans for their contribution and commitment to our country. Student’s interviews will last for 30 minutes and they will be recorded via podcast.

8. Jeremy- Students will learn about the intentions and consequences of the war on drugs. They will evaluate how the money of taxpayers is used to support the prison system. Students will then create a wiki concerning all the aspects of the war, and then they will write to their political representatives about a drug issue.

9. Meagan G- Support A Soldier- Students will create a website where they will ask for donations for soldiers and collect care packages throughout the year. Students will write to the soldiers on monthly bases and learn about the solder's geographical location. Students will manage the website throughout the year and post video updates as well as weekly blog response.

10. Liz- Operation Christmas Child (OCC) - Students will learn about the various cultures the OCC works while working with them. Students will then interview the OCC volunteers about their experiences and their reasons for volunteering. Students will blog about their interviews and engage in a peer-to-peer discussion.

11. Eric- Students will conduct a satisfaction survey with senior citizens then teach them how to use the internet in terms of emails and instant messaging. The senior citizens will then retake the survey and students will evaluate the effectiveness of their instructions.

12. Elizabeth J- Increasing Cultural Awareness- All Americans come from another country with exception to Native Americans; students will poll other students about their personal heritage or country of origin and create a wiki for each country/culture they found. This will increase cultural awareness and hopefully start a multicultural fair for the entire school to participate in.

13. Mallory- Habitat for Humanity- Students will work with the organization and look at the costs of building and financing houses. Students will research cost effective methods of doing these projects and interview families who have received these homes. Students will create a podcast or video blog to document their interviews and share with others.

14. Louisa- Oral history- Students will interview the elderly about their daily lives and record the interviews via a video podcast. Students will share their final product with the nursing home.

15. Mark- Knowing the Avenues- Students will find community members and learn about their needs, and then they find politicians that can help meets the community's needs. Students will create a wiki about the project and make the politicians aware of the issues.

16. Katy- History Affects Us All, examine impact of history in the lives of others, visit nursing home 3-4 times in a semester, pick major historical event in their person's life and interview them about it, students create videos based on their interviews

17. Jeff- Students clean up parks, how do people and the environment interact, teach about conservation and awareness, and make blogs and videos about their experiences and advocating that people take action.

18. Megan P- research presidential elections looking at voter turnout trends, look at how information was disbursed during elections, how the government has affected daily life of citizens over time, visit a retirement home to interview residents about their experiences with elections, students will make podcasts of their interviews and research, students will share their research with the residents, students will write thank you letters to the residents

19. Brittany- increase young people's voter turnout, best done during an election year, learn trends in voting, create online survey to ask questions and collect data, the students will use social networking to encourage people to vote, present to class

20. Nichole- Becoming a responsible citizen: students learn about voting and campaigning, look at historic trends, create wiki, blog, or podcast addressing a certain demographic, and create personalized messages to share their campaign.

21. Trish- At-risk students set up pen pal exchange with students in Japan, students expand their cultural horizons, letters can be related to the content throughout the year, use a wiki to talk about what they learn, what biases there are, write a paper about stereotypes and biases

22. Angie: Students will look at the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Students choose topic based on individual rights and research their topic. Students put information on a class wiki. The class will host a 'get it right' fair and create an interactive display on their topic.

Ali:Rising cultural awareness,
Students will project interviews on the what they know about the patriot act, experiences of Muslim Americans, reaction after 911, how government handed it, what it entails, relate it with what happen with the Japanese internment camps, create questionnaires. Students will then create wikis about the Patriot act and use interview as well to show what happen, spread knowledge of patriot act.

Carrie: Cold war: oral history, digital camera record, create article based on that information, pick a person who experienced the cold war, invite community and school to become apart of the wiki.

Griselda: students will learn about Haiti's geography and history, communicate with students via internet, blog, podcast, video etc Learn about each other, students will collect funds and supplies to send to Haitian students and ultimately present final project to entire school and community.