Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/2866
United Educators of San Francisco member Bob Fisher says kids inspire one another in service learning projects. call it civic virtue.” Student groups in his class selected various problems to research — including poor s chool l unch nutrition, s chool energy efficiency, water pollution, and urban sprawl — sharing what they have learned in presentations. Students were told to narrow their focus and voted to work on improving the nutritional value of school lunches and to fight against pollution of local waterways throughout the school year. Last year Bentley’s class researched laws and state funding for physical educa- tion equipment, which resulted in bond sales that funded a new running track for their school. It will be installed sometime this year. “It’s an amazing learning experience and students sometimes find solutions in unexpected ways,” says Bentley. “The beauty of this was that it wasn’t textbook social studies, En glish or math — but we used math, read l aws, conducted re- search, wrote letters and e-mails, and summarized our research into a 130-page documentation binder we created. You might say it’s project-based learning at its finest form.” The civilized world has a long tradition of service learning, Bob Fisher tells his For more information on service learning go to: www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/sl/overview.asp www.fiu.edu/~time4chg/Library/ bigdummy.html www.nylc.org students at Lowell High School. “There is a quote from the sixth century: ‘No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,’” says Fisher, a member of United Educators of San Francisco. “Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.’” Fisher connects service learning in his social studies classes to American democ- racy and the preamble of the Constitution. 12 California Educator | december 2008 • january 2009 “Everyone wants life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness. And to appreciate those things, students need to know how to make things better for others. If we are go- ing to make America all it can be, we have to share and to give so everyone has those rights.” Teens volunteer in f ood banks and community gardens, tutor at-risk youth, or b ecome politically ac tive in t heir