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STEMester of Service
e-Newsletter
Vol. 2 #6
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Dear ,
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Thrilling, exciting, astounding -- these are the words flying around the YSA office in response to your participation in the RMC student pre-surveys. 100% of the grantee sites, as well as 14 comparison teachers, submitted surveys!! Your efforts are enabling us to provide high-quality research that will be well respected. We hope you are as proud and excited as we are about this outcome! Thank you again for your participation.
This issue of the newsletter includes updates on the following items:
- IPARD/C activities;
- Site visit schedule;
- LASSIE report;
- Global Youth Service Day resources and;
- Your success stories.
Enjoy!
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| Timeline | |
February 7- February 11
National Green Week
www.nationalgreenweek.com
Monday, February 28
LASSIE training webinar
Friday, March 4
Youth Blog due to sguy@ysa.org
Tuesday, March 15 GYSD Project Map registration deadline www.GYSD.org April 15-17 Global Youth Service Day www.GYSD.org |
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Implementing the IPARD/C Process
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As most of you and your students are currently working through the Investigation or Preparation and Planning stages, here are some tips for related activities.
InvestigationDetermine and document baseline data. What is your starting point or your "before" status? When your students record this information, they and your community will more easily become aware of the outcome and impact of their efforts. Your students can collect this data through multiple methods. If your project has a community education component, your students could design and administer pre-surveys to find out how much the community already knows about the issue. If you are building a garden, you students could take photos of the land before they break ground. If you are trying to reduce energy usage in your school, have students record monthly energy usage. Baseline data can be recorded in the chart on pg. 24 of the Semester of Service Strategy Guide.
Preparation and Planning
Establish service and learning goals.
The data you collected during the Investigation stage will help you and your students create service goals. What do your students want to accomplish as they are responding to the community need they identified? What impact do they want to make on the community? These goals can be recorded on pg. 24 of the Semester of Service Strategy Guide.
To ensure that there is a clear connection between the service project and your curriculum, share the learning goals with your students. Which standards, skills, and concepts will they learn and apply through the project? What are they intentionally trying to learn? Students can record these goals on pgs. 23 and 48 of the Semester of Service Strategy Guide.
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Visiting your Schools
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As we mentioned during the Youth Service Institute, Susan and I will be visiting each of your schools prior to the end of the school year. The purpose of these visits is to provide guidance and feedback on your implementation of service-learning and to help you increase the support and sustainability of service-learning in your school and community. During these visits with you, Susan and I would also especially like to meet with your school administration, your community partners and your students. If you like, we can plan and provide a service-learning training for your colleagues and/or partners. Prior to the visits, we will send you a tentative agenda.
Within the next two weeks, I will be in contact with each of you to confirm the dates and times of your site visit.
Completed Visits:
January 21-24: Lincoln IB World School, Challenger Middle School, Imago Dei Middle School
Scheduled Visits:
February 2-4: South Gate Middle School and Warner Middle School
Tentative Schedule:
March 1-8: Cascade Middle School, First Creek Middle School, Cheney Middle School, Chicago Westside Christian School, R.I.S.E.
March 18: Alton Middle School
April 4-5: Chestatee Academy, Pulaski County 4-H
April 11-15: Arrowhead Elementary, Campo Bello Elementary, Concho Elementary
To Be Determined:
All sites in Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, and Washington, DC.
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Reporting your Successes
| Mark your Calendars!
In case you missed the webinar in November, Learn and Serve America will host a second training webinar on the LASSIE reporting process, Monday, February 28 at 2pm EST. Registration information will be provided in the next e-newsletter.
This year, LASSIE will open for reporting Tuesday, March 1 and will close Wednesday, June 15.
The completion of LASSIE is a Learn and Serve America grant requirement.
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Connecting with YSA
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www.GYSD.org
YSA has recently launched the new GYSD website! On the new site, you can:
- Register and post your STEMester of Service project on the GYSD Project Map, as well as learn about projects taking place all over the world. This is a particularly good task to assign to one of your students, to register your project on the map by Tuesday, March 15.
- Enroll to participate in a Global Learning Exchange. Partner with a school in another country so that you can share across borders what you are doing, learn about what they are doing, and even collaborate on your service-learning projects: http://www.GYSD.org/exchange
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/globalyouthserviceday
YSA staff will be utilizing the Global Youth Service Day Facebook page as a training tool to send out timely reminders, post tips on how to implement the IPARD/C process and facilitate dialogue regarding best practices for planning and implementing service and service-learning projects. We encourage you, your students and community partners to "like" GYSD on Facebook!
National Service Briefing
http://www.ysa.org/nsb
Each Thursday, you, as well as all YSA grantees, receive an e-newsletter from YSA entitled, "The National Service Briefing." The National Service Briefing (NSB) is a weekly e-newsletter for the service and service-learning field. The NSB informs readers about upcoming program initiatives and resources; disseminates research results, educational materials and best practices; announces grant and award opportunities; features inspiring stories of Everyday Young Heroes, shares job opportunities; highlights upcoming conferences; and maintains an updated calendar of key events for the field.
The information presented in the NSB is further information about YSA and about service and service-learning. As a STEMester of Service grantee you are not required to implement or utilize the ideas or resources mentioned in the NSB. Rather, the NSB is intended to be yet another resource to help you expand, find additional funding for, and improve your practice of service and service-learning, and to learn about how your process and project fits into the field in general.
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Learning from One Another
| Campo Bello Elementary School, Phoenix, AZ: Allan Harris, Dave Shaeffer and their STEMester of Service club students are meeting four days each week after-school and are working towards xeriscaping the school property. To begin their project, Allan, Dave and their students, many of whom have little or no prior experience with service, had a discussion comparing and contrasting service and service-learning, and then they created three project goals: to create an outdoor classroom that will improve the look of the school and community; to reduce the school's use of water and energy; and to reduce the school's water and energy bills. To investigate their school's current water and energy needs and record baseline data, they created scale drawings of the school grounds that they will renovate. The principal and the school district facilities manager are very supportive of the project.
Inland Lakes School, Indian River, MI: On January 4th, Nancy Wandrie, Susan Whitener, Becky Heckman and their 68 students invited potential community partners to their school for a half-day event that focused on learning about community needs and resources and building school-community partnerships. The community organizations requested the students' assistance and explained how the students could work with them to help them reach their goals. They also suggested ways that they could provide assistance to their service-learning project.
Lincoln IB World School, Fort Collins, CO: On January 21st, Sarah Bayer, Kathryn Sampson and the 8th grade students of Lincoln IB World School hosted a Conversation Cafe at Colorado State University. The forum was an excellent example on the Investigation process. Prior to the event, students researched the benefits and consequences of uranium mining. At the forum, students led conversations with community members (including Susan!) to gain a deeper understanding of both sides of the issue and decide their position on the issue. Students will use their insights gained from their research and the Conversation Cafe to determine their next action steps.
The school received great pre-event press in the Coloradoan! Check it out: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110113/NEWS01/101130369/Middle-schoolers-invite-uranium-debate?GID=0
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Best,
Sarah Guy
Education Manager
Youth Service America
sguy@ysa.org
202-296-2992 x110
This material is based upon work supported by the Corporation for National
and Community Service under Learn and
Serve America Grant No. 09KSADC002.
Opinions or points of view expressed in this
document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official
position of the Corporation or the Learn and
Serve America Program.
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