BIOL 2650 Service Learning Guidelines

The Service Learning component of the course consists of three parts: preparation, interaction, and reflection. All three parts should enhance your learning experience.

Good preparation will ensure you and your learning partners maximize your knowledge regarding the environment and how we humans interact with it and affect it. The interaction portion will allow you to assess how much your partners know to begin with, and is the means by which you bring to them the additional information and insights you have as an environmental biology student at CSU Stanislaus. The process of reflection, and writing your thoughts down for me and the other students in the class to read, will allow us to evaluate the impact of the project on you and your partners.

Plan to get the work done in March and April, so you have time to write everything up and turn it in by mid-May. 

Step 1: Identify a need in the community and willing partners in service learning.

            Examples would be elementary school students whose teachers would like assistance in starting or maintaining a school garden. There are two types of garden projects that would be suitable for our purposes: native plant gardens, including butterfly waystations, and vegetable gardens. Gardens in general provide an opportunity to look at the concepts of habitat, food webs, introduced vs. native species, pests and pest control, the place of humans in the food chain, nutrition, energy efficiency, soil conservation, water use efficiency, and carrying capacity. Once you and your teacher partner identify the type of garden you would like to plant and maintain, it will be your responsibility to learn about the appropriate concepts and be prepared to share that information with the students and teacher.

            If you prefer working with older students or adults, you could approach a high school ecology club, a church group, or other community organization, and organize a couple field trips to the National Wildlife Refuges in order to participate in their on-going restoration projects. In this case, you would prepare by learning about the goals of the restoration projects, past efforts, successes or failures, why there is a need for restoration in the first place. You would find out when the work-days take place, inform your learning partners, prepare them with an informational presentation covering the subjects mentioned above, and participate along with them.

Step 2: Eight hours of interaction with your learning partners.

            Record the time and nature of the interactions and activities. If possible, take digital photos to share with your partners, me, and the rest of our class. Take notes on site, or as soon as possible after the activities, so you don’t forget important details. These notes will help you in the reflection portion of the assignment. I need verification from your learning partner, that you were there and did the work promised.

Step 3: Reflection

            This is where you assess what you learned, and what impact the service learning had on your partners. Please include as much objective information as possible, such as “The students showed a greater understanding of the importance of habitat for native species. They began to use the vocabulary, and could identify native plants and wildflowers that were unknown to them before the project.” Or, “The students told me that their families were eating more healthy foods, especially vegetables, than before”.

            You can also include the emotional responses of your learning partners and yourself. However, I do not want to force anyone to reveal their personal feeling, if you aren’t comfortable doing so. 

            Finally, I would like your assessment of the value of the service learning experience, as it relates to our Environmental Biology class. Did it deepen or expand your knowledge, or appreciation of the subject?  Did it reinforce (or ignite) your interest in the subject? Would you recommend that it be continued as a portion of the course?

Evaluation: You will be graded on the following basis.

            Submit a report of 4 to 8 typed pages (font 10 -12, single spaced) that describes your project, the preparatory information you gathered, a summary of your interactions with your learning partners, including dates and time spent, results of your project, and your reflection essay. If you work with a partner, you must each submit your own report. Photos are in addition to the typed pages. Be prepared to share your results in class. You should have at least 3 reliable references for your informational material. If you use web pages, I want to know the specific articles you read, not just a general website. The quality as well as the quantity of your reference information is important to your overall grade.

            Preparation: 30 points

            Participation, work log, notes: 30 points

            Reflection: 30 points

            Brief oral presentation in class: 10 points

You may work in pairs or groups of 4; in fact, I feel more comfortable having you go out into the community in pairs, for your own safety. However, once you are on site, interact with the students or other learning partners, not with each other!

Before you begin: There are some legal issues to be addressed.

            You need to fill out the form Service Learning Worksheet, which will provide me with the name of your partner(s), the site(s) address where you will be working, and contact information (names, phone number, e-mail). You are also required to read and sign the Service Learning Contract provided by the Office of Service learning, here on campus.

            If you are working with school children of any age, you need to have a TB test, and be fingerprinted (actually- finger scanned). The TB test is free at the Student Health Center, the fingerprinting is done by our Public Safety Office, and will be paid for by the University, as part of its commitment to service learning.

            List of potential Service Learning Sites and Partners:

Empire Elementary School, Butterfly Garden: 4 students

            Contact: Karen Retford

Six Turlock Elementary Classrooms: Gardens,

            Contacts:  To be announced.

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge and San Joaquin NWR: Restoration

            Contact: Jack Sparks    Jack_Sparks@fws.gov

Consumnes River Nature Preserve: Restoration

Friends of the Tuolumne: Restoration

            Contact: Karlha Arias    karlha@toulumne.org

Feel free to contact your old school, local schools here in Turlock, the Stanislaus County Office of Education, High School clubs, etc.  For safety and insurance purposes, you may not drive high school students or minors to a work site. Let the adult responsible for the group do that. However, I believe you may carpool from campus with other BIOL 2650 students to your volunteer site.

For students who are limited in their ability to get off campus, I have on-campus plans for a Butterfly Waystation in the Bio Ag Field Station. This will accommodate 4 students; you will have to arrange for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or school classes to come out and share your labor and knowledge. There is also a possibility that 2-4 students may participate in the on-campus Hunger Project, which grows food and donates it to the homeless.