One More Year To Remember
Dan Lukiv

october 1

lightning,
cloud to cloud--
no sound

october 2

seated on a bench--
a curly-haired woman
and her poodle

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Rain Gardens: A Beautiful Service Learning Project
Kitrina Carlson, PhD

           Every educated person should have an understanding of basic biological            concepts…Overpopulation, the destruction of the environment, and the            malaise of the inner cities cannot be solved by technological advances, nor            by literature or history, but by measures that are based on an            understanding of the biological roots of these problems.
                                  Ernst Mayer - This is Biology: the Science of the Living World

There is no question that tomorrow's leaders must excel in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in order to develop solutions to the urgent societal problems we are facing as a world and simply to be competitive in the increasingly technical and skill driven work force.  It had been a goal of the U.S. Department of Education's National Commission on Excellence in Education to have students perform among the "first in the world in mathematics and science achievement by the year 2000" (NSB, 2006).  However, on international assessments of performance in math and science, U.S. students consistently perform poorly and achieve at or near the bottom of participating nations (NSB, 2006). 

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Service Learning Is a Pathway to Authority and Understanding
Wayne M. Tanna, JD, LL.M.

Since I started teaching at Chaminade University in 1992, I have incorporated service learning into a number of my courses. My definition and adaptation of service learning, as used on Chaminade University’s website (http://www.chaminade.edu/serviceLearning), reads as follows:
           Service learning is a method of learning through active participation in            thoughtfully organized service conducted in and meeting the needs of the            community.  Service learning is integrated into and enhances the curriculum. It            includes structured time for reflection and helps to foster civic and corporate            responsibility.  As pedagogy, service learning emerges from experiential learning            theory and encourages active student involvement in the learning process.
The use of service learning as a method of teaching stems from the idea that experiential learning activities that engage the learner in the phenomena being studied greatly enhances the learning environment.  It follows from the old Chinese proverb, “Tell me, and I will forget; show me, and I may remember; involve me, and I will understand.” It also follows from the Hawaiian proverb “A‘ ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka halau ho‘okaki,” or “one can learn from many sources.”  These words have critical salience for modern educators.

Service learning allows for the effective utilization of the community as an environment for learning.  It also creates other positive factors.  Foremost among these factors is the effect of increasing the student’s awareness of his/her own civic and social responsibility.  Our students are our future leaders.  They need to become aware that a democratic society is dependent upon the presence of an informed, active, and caring citizenry.

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