Service projects help students connect math, reading to real world

SALT LAKE CITY — A brown rabbit hops around the classroom. Two pigeons coo in a cage behind the teacher's desk. Coiled snakes sun themselves in the glass cases that line the windowsill, and brightly colored student projects cover the walls.

Even with such ample cause for distraction, Ms. Powell's sixth grade students at The Salt Lake Center for Science Education, a charter school in Rose Park, are completely focused on the task at hand.

Sitting at round tables, small groups of students are hatching plans for service projects. A group that wants to share music with the elderly is making a list of "songs old people like." Another group discusses the best way to teach their kindergarten science buddies about solids and liquids.

Powell's students aren't doing a unit on civic engagement, nor is their interest in community engagement a passing phase. Service is an integral part of how Powell educates. She subscribes to a pedagogical approach known as service learning in which students investigate problems and then design service projects to address needs. The teacher's role is to find ways to link the service projects with curriculum.

There are many ways to implement service learning projects in classrooms. When Powell's students wanted to make quilts for homeless people, she planned a sewing project that made use of geometry concepts they had learned. When her students wanted to spend time with the elderly, she arranged for them to do a readers' theatre during their visits. Powell loves sharing service projects with her students, but she acknowledges "a lot goes into a job well done." She spends a lot of time working to ensure her kids have a good experience both as service learners and as students.

Service learning programs are spreading throughout the country. As of 2011, 30 percent of elementary and secondary schools offered service learning, said Shelley Billig, vice president of RMC Corporation, a Denver-based education reform research organization. And fully 90 percent of universities offer service learning programs. The formalization of service learning began in the 1960s with the creation of the Peace Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). In 1990 the Office of National Service was created and legislation was passed that authorized grants for schools to support service learning projects.

Although service learning is a simple concept, it produces powerful results in educational settings. "When done well, service learning raises test scores, engages disenfranchised students in curriculum and gives students an opportunity to acquire soft skills," Billig said.