January 2005 — Features
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Motivating Students Through Project-Based Service Learning
The students are taking the project one step further and now plan to train fire department personnel to maintain a mapping program that will visually plot arsonist patterns throughout Sacramento County. During the course of this important civic project, students developed technical skills in various software programs and equipment. They also gained important academic and personal skills that included problem solving, critical thinking, research documentation, teamwork and effective communication (Th'ene 2003).
Saving Lives. In Riverside County, students whose lives had been touched by gang violence created a forceful, thought-provoking film to dissuade other teens from entering gang life. The film, titled “For Life,” won four awards from Panasonic’s KWN Contest. During the production of the video, students perfected their animation skills and learned specific software applications to create movie posters and brochures designed to entice viewers. The community also got involved in the creation of the video. For instance, a hospital technician assisted with the special effects makeup for the student actors, while the sheriff’s department provided technical expertise in the staging and logistics of the depicted gang-related shooting.
The process of video production required students to focus attention; to keep on task; and, within a production timeline, to utilize language arts skills such as written and verbal communication, storyboarding and researching. Even more impressive than the authentic learning that took place is the change that occurred in the students, as the message disseminated through their video project was geared toward saving young lives (Delcampo 2003; Hinkson 2004).
Aqueduct Mapping. A student-driven project in Santa Barbara County, known as Mission Santa Inés Aqueduct Mapping, solved a 200-year-old archaeological mystery. Through research, sophisticated electronic mapping techniques and perseverance, students discovered evidence of a previously unknown aqueduct. Their discovery answered the question of where the mission and its adjacent mill complex got their constant and abundant water supply.
To map the ancient water system, students used high-end technology and software programs. In addition, students consulted experts; viewed original documents; and analyzed data and information from archives, environmental impact reports, databases and libraries. Based on their research, the students used GPS units to map four aqueduct locations. After collecting the GPS coordinates for the known ruins, the identified points were plotted and elevation layers were added. By extrapolating along the elevation contour lines, a topographic map was created that allowed students to determine where they might find additional evidence of the aqueduct. The class discovered two previously unknown sites along the 500-foot contour. Additional analysis revealed where the aqueduct system crossed a road into a commercial development that was built in the 1940s.
The evidence was submitted to archaeologists from the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation who confirmed the sites as well as the students’ theory. Then, the class wrote a paper and presented findings at the California Missions Foundation Conference in a series of lectures. The students are currently working on recreating the aqueduct in a virtual reality Web-based animation. Their findings have become part of a historical curriculum for local elementary school classes. The students, their teachers and the mission project also recently received California’s 2004 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award (Fenenga 2004).
