Service Learning
Direct Service
Indirect Service
Advocacy
Research
Service Learning (SL) is a fundamental part of the IBCP curriculum. Participation in service-learning activities emphasizes service-learning, service as a vehicle for learning that has academic value, reflects upon the career-related studies, and relates to the Reflective Project. This involvement allows young people to share their energies and talents while developing awareness, concern, and the ability to work cooperatively with others. The goal of educating the whole person and fostering a more compassionate citizenry comes alive in an immediate way when students reach beyond themselves.
Direct Service
With people
Coach children in sports
Deliver meals to people living with a medical condition
Lead résumé-writing workshops for people who are unemployed
Organize or assist at a blood donation drive
Play music with elders to have an exchange of skills and learn about each other’s music preferences and talents, and then perform as an ensemble for others
Distribute plants at a farmer’s market to promote home-grown container gardens
Prepare and then serve food at a soup kitchen
With the environment
Restore a stream.
Prepare the soil and beds for an elementary school garden and plant with the children
Grow seedlings for distribution
Install raised-bed gardens for a senior center
Establish a recycling program at your local civic center
Make a rainwater garden
With animals
Help at an animal shelter with data entry and dog walking
Assist with a pet adoption outreach program at community events
Lead a workshop on pet care
Set up a turtle sanctuary in partnership with a community organization
Indirect Service
With people
Assemble a photograph exhibit about poverty for a gallery
Prepare meals in a soup kitchen
Take part in a walkathon to raise money for different humanitarian causes
Prepare activity kits for children for an emergency shelter
Write brochures for organizations
Build an organization’s website or provide content for an organization’s website
Assist with the creation of a museum exhibit
Make exercise videos to give to homeless shelters
Create a newsletter for a retirement community
Record audiobooks for people who are visually impaired
With the environment
Prepare signage for a local wetland
Grow seedlings for distribution
Initiate a school compost scheme to reduce food waste in landfills
Create a website with information about flora and fauna for a local park
With animals
Make zoo toys for animals
Collect needed supplies for a wildlife rescue centre
Bake dog biscuits for an animal shelter
Make colouring books with protection tips on local endangered animals for elementary schools and tourists
Advocacy Service
With people
Lead a town hall meeting on solar energy
Organize a letter-writing campaign for a cause
Host a speaker and film series to raise awareness for the community
Create comic strips or comic books to teach about emergency safety and readiness
Plan a conference to raise awareness about education equity
With the environment
Provide reusable water bottles to replace single-use water bottles
Create public service announcements on energy reduction in homes
Organize a flash mob to teach about recycling
Promote a “just use less” campaign to reduce quantities of what is put in trash and recycling bins
With animals
Make beach signs to protect local waterways from rubbish
Advocate for animals at risk at an organized public event
Create posters, videos and public service announcements to promote animal adoption for a shelter
Research Service
With people
Assist with a city-wide needs assessment by running focus groups
Conduct hands-on research about how interaction improves the quality of life for residents at an elder care facility
Prepare a public service outreach process to identify local veterans willing to be interviewed, and then conduct the interviews for a historical society
Learn about the history of people buried in a cemetery from the 1800s to support a local museum
Observe play habits of children in an orphanage or refugee center to identify what skills are developed or need support
With the environment
Use photography to collect images that inform about the first flush from a storm drain near your school
Interview administrators at local landfills to learn about community habits that support collections of trash to recycle and food waste for composting
Analyze items collected in a community or beach clean-up to develop a campaign (advocacy service) that prevents the items from being littered again
With animals
Conduct a behavior study of zoo animals or shelter animals
Monitor numbers of stray animals, combine findings with interviews and surveys to determine opinions of advocates, opponents and the general public and offer recommendations to improve local policies
Assist with tracking and monitoring of butterfly migratory paths