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Grade Level: 3-5
Academic Areas: Science, Health, Physical Education, Family and
Consumer Science
Duration of service: Year-Long
Character Virtues: Respect, Giving, Responsibility, Civic Virtue
and Citizenship
Service Areas: Environmental
Service Learning Project:
After a study of ecosystems and conservation, students will create
a model ecosystem that reflects their own natural environment.
Students will then apply this knowledge to designing, building,
and maintaining their own actual ecosystem. Students will develop
community partnerships to help them engage in conservation efforts
for the community. This may include beach clean-ups, park clean-ups,
tree planting, and other beautification efforts. Students will
solicit the local political forces for financial support and local
community members for physical labor and donations of goods and
services. Students will be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance
of these areas by organizing and orchestrating clean-up days,
planting days, and picnics to celebrate their new, clean, and
healthy environment.
Goals and Objectives
Academic
Learning Goal: Students will create and maintain a healthy environment
that supports authentic ecosystems.
Standard: Health, Physical Education and Family Consumer Science
Standard # 2 and # 3 MST Standard # 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5,7
Learning Goal: Students will research birds, plants, and trees
indigenous to their community and apply this information to the
design of the ecosystem and beautification of their community.
Standard: MST Standard # 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 and 7 ELA Standard # 1,
2, 3,
Learning Goal: Students will create media projects demonstrating
their understanding of the information learned in this unit.
Service
Community need: Preservation of natural resources, creating healthy
and inviting environments for recreation
Possible Community Partners: Local Assemblymen, Local businesses,
community residents, conservation foundations, historical societies,
BOCES, local garden centers
Objective: Students will donate their time to design and develop
a sample ecosystem that reflects their own community within their
academic setting.
Objective: Students will organize clean-up days, planting days,
etc. to help beautify and maintain an area of need in their community.
Character
Virtue: Giving
Objective: Students will give their time and energy toward the
research, development, and maintenance of both a sample ecosystem
and their own natural environment.
Virtue: Civic Virtue and Citizenship
Objective: Students will create a healthy and safe environment
to create a better community for residents and visitors. As a
result, students will have a sense of belonging and ownership
to their community environment.
Virtue: Respect and Responsibility
Objective: Students will take responsibility to clean up their
community and gain greater respect for the place in which they
live.
Key Activities
Key Planning Activities
1. Students will research and design a model ecosystem in their
academic setting.
2. After determining the needs of their model ecosystem, students
will write letters to local politicians and businesses requesting
financial assistance and donations of goods and services.
Key Service Activities
1. Students will organize a “Clean-Up Day” based
on the needs of the neighborhood.
2. Students, in collaboration with their community and other conservation
resources, will construct their desired ecosystem and maintain
their project site.
Key Reflection Activities
1. (oral – responsibility) Students will hold a mock town
meeting in which they take on the roles of different players in
the project. Some students will take on the role of students presenting
their ideas and the possible benefits of the project while others
will play skeptical community members and will ask challenging
questions about the project.
2. (written – civic virtue and citizenship) Students will
write persuasive essays describing the importance of the interdependence
of an ecosystem and how it promotes a healthy and inviting environment.
3. (performance – giving) Students will create and share
a PowerPoint presentation documenting their project with the school
and community
Demonstration Activity
Students will host an opening picnic in the newly improved site
to which all of the contributors and community members will be
invited. Students and guests will sing the song “This Land
is Your Land.”
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