• Biology classes at C. Milton Wright High School in Harford County grew submerged aquatic vegetation know as wild celery in their classrooms as part of the Grasses in Classes project sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Students then planted the grasses in the Bay to help improve the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay.
  
  
• Fairmount-Harford High School Students in Baltimore City were all involved in a renovation of an abandoned community lot. This multidisciplinary project had students designing and maintaining the lot. They have mapped and cleared the lot, researched and planted appropriate vegetation, and built picnic tables and a gazebo.

• Stevensville Middle School students in Queen Anne's County engage in a project called Serving Seniors, a service-learning unit connected to math, science, social studies, and language arts/reading classes in partnership with the Department of Aging. Students define service-learning, study citizenship, and become aware of the needs of the community, especially the changing physical and mental characteristics of aging. Students then develop relationships with elderly residents of their community who are living in nursing homes or are involved with a senior center.

• See our growing archive of high-quality service-learning project ideas.

1. Meet a recognized need in the community
Students work to identify pressing community needs and devise and participate in projects that address those needs. The Corporation for National and Community Service categorizes community needs as related to: health, education, environment or public safety. Students might engage in direct, indirect or advocacy projects.

2. Achieve curricular objectives through service-learning
Service-learning provides an opportunity for classroom knowledge to be applied and tested in real-life settings. Service-learning projects should meet existing course outcomes in an experiential manner. Engaging students in high quality service-learning experiences develops skills such as those assessed through Maryland School Assessment (MSA)and High School Assessment (HSA) Program.

3. Reflect throughout the service-learning experience
Through reflection activities in the form of discussions, journaling, performing, writing, etc., students come to more fully understand the connection of their schoolwork to the service work performed. Reflection helps students explore the cycle of: What & Why? So What? Now What?

4. Develop student responsibility
High quality service-learning allows students to take leadership and ownership over the projects performed. Students learn important school, work, and life skills such as working as a team, organizing and scheduling activities, and problem solving when given increased responsibility for the success of projects.

5. Establish community partnerships
Service-learning experiences provide opportunities for students to learn about their communities, explore career possibilities, and work with diverse groups of individuals. Quality projects involve community organizations as partners.

6. Plan ahead for service-learning
As with all effective instruction, an action plan must be created which features specific objectives to be achieved through the activity. Service-learning requires teachers, students, and community organizations to carefully plan out projects and work collaboratively.

7. Equip students with knowledge and skills needed for service
To effectively engage in a project, students must understand the issue they will be addressing. As part of preparing to engage in service-learning, students are often required to conduct research, read articles, and listen to guest speakers. Students also need to learn project specific skills, as well as explore issues related to citizenship and civic engagement.

If you would like to evaluate the effectiveness of a service-learning project you current offer or engage in, use our Seven Best Practice Evaluation Tool.