OST Service Learning Models
Reading “Wanda’s Flowers” and growing flowers to deliver to nursing home shut-ins in Fennville, Michigan. See featured story below.
With the vision that all young people become civically informed and engaged global citizens through participation in service learning during their formative years, the Michigan After-School Partnership (MASP) has embarked on a mission to develop a pathway for service learning in Out-of-School Time (OST) programs in our state.
Service learning encourages philanthropy and student action to promote the common good through identified community needs. Working with the nonprofit Learning to Give, MASP is leading development of service learning projects in school- and community-based OST programs in Michigan.
Learn more about After-School Mini-Grants
Access “Simple Safe Service” Learning Guides to do from home
Elementary Students Explore Water Quality in Northern Michigan’s Rivers, Ponds and Lakes
When Erin Guesno, a program coordinator for SEEDs at Marion Elementary School in Northern Michigan, discovered a Learning to Give lesson on testing water quality, she knew it would fit right into the relevant environmental themes of her out-of-school time program near Traverse City. She also knew that her students and their families would dive right into an activity that had built-in advocacy opportunities for clean water in their community band state. Hear from Guesno herself as she describes the project and its impact in the attached video. Read a story about the project, with a link to the related curriculum lesson, by the nonprofit Learning to Give here.
Flower Power in Fennville: Schoolchildren’s Project Captures Hearts
Fennville students proudly display the flowers they raised - and gave away - after participating in a lesson titled, “Flower Garden for Life.”
What happened when a Fennville Elementary School educator conceived of the idea of teaching students about philanthropy? A beautiful lesson about the importance of kindness, the power of student voice, and taking ownership in community.
Read about the experiences of a group of schoolchildren, in grades Kindergarten through 5, in this real-life story set in an agricultural region of southwestern Michigan. Read it here!