Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
This course provides an introduction and applications to service-learning and civic responsibility. Academic, personal, and career skills needed for effective service-learning project implementation will be taught and applied through structured service projects that meet real school and/or community needs. Students will actively participate in meaningful service-learning experiences of at least 25 hours' duration.The content should include, but not be limited to, the following:
- Students, working individually or in small or large groups, will investigate, quantify, and choose among issues and needs that can be addressed.
- Students will design and then implement one or more service-learning projects to address identified needs through direct, indirect, advocacy, or research-focused action. Projects will involve meaningful partnerships.
- Students will conduct reflection activities to measure and record information about the service-learning activities and their impacts.
- Students will demonstrate KSAs (knowledge, skills, or abilities) gained from projects through project-developed products and public presentations that educate others about the needs/issues addressed, activities conducted, impacts measured, and/or how others can also meet needs through service.
Mathematics Benchmark Guidance - Social Studies instruction should include opportunities for students to interpret and create representations of historical events and concepts using mathematical tables, charts, and graphs.
Language Arts benchmarks are addressed as students read, write, create documents, and make public presentations about needs and activities to address them. Social Studies benchmarks include analyzing community issues, coming up with solutions, and conducting service projects. Math benchmarks are met as students chart and graph data as part of issue investigation, project design, demonstration, and/or reflection. Health and Physical Education are addressed as projects include discussion and learning related to safety, liability, interpersonal skills, conflict avoidance, appraising outcomes and impacts on others, maintaining appropriate behavior, etc., in the students' interaction with others.
After successfully completing this course, the student will:
- Demonstrate an understanding of service-learning, the types of service-learning, and its importance in a participatory democracy.
- Demonstrate the ability to identify school/community needs and propose solutions that can be implemented through service-learning.
- Demonstrate the ability to identify and analyze different points of view to gain an understanding of diverse backgrounds and perspectives and their value.
- Demonstrate the ability to investigate significant needs, plan and implement service-learning projects to address them, evaluate project effectiveness, and present the information to an authentic audience.
- Demonstrate use of effective self-assessment and reflection strategies (e.g., verbal, written, artistic, and non-verbal activities to demonstrate learning, understanding, and changes in students' knowledge, skills and/or abilities).
- Demonstrate effective use of facilitative communication skills (e.g., writing, speaking, listening, questioning, paraphrasing, non-verbal communication, non-judgmental response).
- Provide documentation of activities and the minimum 25 hours of participation in one or more approved service-learning project.
General Information
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
In this interactive tutorial, explore the impact of federal, state, and local governments on your daily life.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this interactive tutorial, learn about the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of American citizenship.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This interactive tutorial will help you answer the questions: What can individuals do on their own to make change? When can your government help you? To which government can you turn? Learn about responsible citizenship and how you might make positive changes in your own community.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate the limiting factors of a Florida ecosystem and describe how these limiting factors affect one native population-the Florida Scrub-Jay-with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn what genetic engineering is and some of the applications of this technology. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll gain an understanding of some of the benefits and potential drawbacks of genetic engineering. Ultimately, you’ll be able to think critically about genetic engineering and write an argument describing your own perspective on its impacts.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about the international organizations with which the United States government and its citizens are involved. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn about intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this interactive tutorial, learn all about political parties in the U.S., including what they are and how they function in our political system. You'll learn lots about the two major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, and also about third parties and what it means to be a political "Independent."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice identifying and examining the evidence used to support a specific argument. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several short texts about the exploration of Mars to practice distinguishing relevant from irrelevant evidence. You'll also practice determining whether the evidence presented is sufficient or insufficient.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn how and why American citizens are governed by TWO governments which share power: the federal government of the United States and the government of the state in which they live.
Type: Original Student Tutorial