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Handouts
Resources
Service Learning Examples
- GLOBE in Oregon: "Throughout the year, Kimberly's students at Taft Elementary School set up and run monitoring stations on nearby Schooner Creek - the sole source of Lincoln City's water. Using GPS (Global Positioning System) instruments to precisely locate their research site, the students plug their data into a GLOBE (Global Learning and Observing to Benefit the Environment) database. Globe is an international program, funded by the White House and administered locally at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), which uses student-generated data to help monitor and protect the planet." More
- Trail Mapping in Oregon: Projects at the Bureau of Land Management's Douglas Creek Management Area this summer include using GPS technology to map out an 8 mile non-motorized trail, highlighting and measuring creek crossing locations, weed infestations, points of historical note and interpretive opportunities. While using the GPS unit, a new photo record of the current trail and it's condition will be accomplished. Students will also work at clearing portions of the trail of vegetation, and designing several creek crossing points and two trailheads."
- Trail Project: "Our activities at this site have included developing a brochure of the trail, erecting benches at scenic spots, GPS mapping, trail maintenance and expansion, the painting and installation of a mural at the summit and making a topographic, foam core diorama of the area. The brochure of the trail was created and produced with the help of the Technology Dept at Moultonborough School District on school lab computers."
- Wetlands Mapping: "High school biology students work with local conservation group to identify and map with GPS the location of all vernal pools in their town. They hope to use this data to create policy that classifies vernal pools as wetlands, thereby restricting development in
these areas."
- Community Mapping: "...authentic issues using hands-on resources and technology, including geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), to actively investigate social, economic and ecological systems, identify and solve local problems and develop enduring connections."
- Planting Project: Students organized and took part in community service activities such as native plant propagation, planting and maintenance in an urban public park, setting up a composting and recycling facility at a school, using GPS and compass to walk transects to identify and measure impact of invasive species at a national wildlife refuge, cleaning of anchialine ponds to enhance the water quality so that native opae-ula could return to the pools, and planting of native palms and wiliwili at a shoreline park.
- Plant Inventory: "...students inventory plant life in selected areas (for wildlife biologists). Currently they are working in a major natural preserve a few miles from their schools. They identify particular trees, use GPS to locate the coordinates of the tree, and enter the data into the palm computer."
- Community Boardwalk Interpretive Signs: "This community had recently completed a boardwalk along the river that traverses the area...Students researched information about potential interpretive sites along the
boardwalk. They used GPS to plot points for placement of information stations. Then they designed the stations, gathered information about lumber prices, and provided specifications to the contractor. They also developed the content of the signs, took pertinent digital photos, and laid out the signs."
- Cemetery Mapping Projects (pages 7 and 8): "...using a global positioning system (GPS) to determine the exact positions of headstones and other data points in the cemetery."
- River Heritage Exploration
- American Red Cross Disaster Plan: "Students learn that Louisiana's government needs their help in making sure people know where to find safe shelter in emergencies." A statewide project.
- Tennessee 4-H: "On Sunday, all 300 delegates participated in a service project to assist the City of St. Louis map Forest Park. Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country - more than 500 acres larger than Central Park in New York City. Delegates recorded information about all of the signs in the park, including their coordinates marked with a GPS (Global Positioning System). A very useful map was produced with the data collected."
- Geocaching and CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) as a service learning project? "There are many educational caches out there and combined with a CITO it would make a perfect project for any grade. It goes like this: Have the kids look at GC.com and find caches they may be interested in seeing. Then before you go on the trip, have them all make up little CITO cans (take a film can and fold a plastic grocery bag so that it fits inside, the grocery bag is used to hold trash on the way out.) Each student takes one can with them to use and one can to leave for the next person. Make labels for the CITO cans so that others know what they are."
- Collecting Data for the State: "Schools take their GPS units out and collect data on a wide variety of things and then add the coordinates and sometimes digital pictures to maps of the area. They are taught how to compare their data to state data that can be downloaded by any user. Some sample projects include finding plant types or weed populations, mapping city parks and city utilities, mapping out running routes for cross country practice, etc."
- Bluebird Nests: They use the global positioning units to pinpoint and map locations of bluebird nesting boxes that have been placed around the pond property.
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