Service Learning

Students and their communities both benefit from the combination of classroom instruction, experiential learning, civic engagement, and reflection that service learning provides.  To promote the benefits of service learning, Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) makes the following information available.

Service Learning Activities in TwHP Lesson Plans

The Impact of Historic Preservation in Your Community

Youth Summits

Case Studies in Service Learning

Historic Preservation as Service Learning

Some Ideas to Get You Started

Service Learning Activities in TwHP Lesson Plans

Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) offers more than 130 classroom-ready lesson plans on places throughout the country and topics across the curriculum. The following lessons include service-learning activities that enrich and reinforce student learning and promote civic responsibility. These are complete, self-contained lesson plans on a variety of places and topics; however, the service learning exercises easily may be adapted to other places and subject matters.  To find the service learning activity in each of the following lessons, click on “Putting It All Together” in the lesson’s index and look for the activity’s name as cited below under the lesson titles. 

• "Race Relations in Your Hometown:" Have students research and discuss race relations in their town. Ask them to conduct an interview with a community member who remembers life during the Jim Crow period. Have students submit their recordings either on paper or on tape to the local library or historical society.

• "Interview a Former Prisoner of War:"  Students may arrange interviews on their own, or you may ask a former POW to speak to your class. (Organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars are excellent sources for locating former prisoners of war who are willing to visit schools.) On the following day, have students compare their guest's experience with that of the prisoners at Andersonville.  Visit the Veterans History Project website, a project created by the Library of Congress, and have students submit their interviews to the collection.

• "Endangered Sites:" Have students find out if there is a historic place in their community that is endangered. In groups have students research the significance of one of the endangered places and what efforts are being made to preserve the place.  Contact the person organizing the preservation efforts and design a project that will allow students to participate in the process.  Also, have the class compare each place to King of Prussia Inn.

• "Preserving the Past:" Identify buildings in your community that are used in a way that is different from their original purpose. Have each student create a display using historical and current photographs of a local building. Students should provide captions for the photos, explain how the building has changed over time, and how the building is being used today. Students should present their display in class and give an explanation of what the building tells them about their community's past. Contact the current owner of the building or business in that building and coordinate with them to display the students’ projects or offer the exhibits for display at the local library, museum, or historical society.

• "War Memorials in the Local Community:" Have students research and report to the class if a historical battle took place in their community, locate it on a map, and determine if anything commemorates the location. Have them debate the value of honoring events and preserving the places where they occurred.  Have students write letters to local community officials to encourage them to commemorate this location.  In the letters, the students could also suggest the appropriate text and/or design the commemorative markers.

• "Local War Memorials:" Have students work in groups to investigate and list the types of war memorials that exist in their community. As a class, discuss the types of war memorials in the local community and consider other ways to commemorate wars.  Contact your local Veteran’s association to determine which war memorial could use a local clean up and work with the association to arrange for a class excursion to clean up the memorial and its surrounding grounds.

• "Researching a Local Park:" Have students choose a local park or other green space to study. Ask them to use a municipal or local historical society library to find out the history of the local park or other green space.  Encourage students to prepare a short oral report for class, or present their information in a research paper.  Consider taking the class on an outdoor excursion to participate in a “park-clean up” activity.

• "Promoting Local Resources:" Divide students into small groups and have each group select a national park, monument, historic site, state or local park, wilderness area, or other public use area located in their community that they would like to promote. Have each group create either a promotion page for a newspaper or magazine, a Web page, or a photo essay "advertising" their site.  Finally, have the students submit their projects to the given park, site, or public use area.

• "Locating Significant Local Properties:" Have students examine a property in their own community that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places or that students believe should be listed. Have them discuss which areas of significance they would use if they were preparing a nomination for that property, and how they would justify their decisions.  If a property is not listed, consider contacting local preservation or historical organization, or the state historic preservation office, for information about preparing a nomination. Students could research information for and prepare a nomination for the property.

• "Local Assistance Groups:" Have students investigate organizations in their area which offer assistance; research them to discover their history, similarities, and differences; and look at them in comparison to the Red Cross.  Brainstorm ideas for assistance within their own community and discuss ideas with an organization representative.  Work with the organization representative to design a project that would allow the students to assist the organization.

• "Local Volunteer Organizations:" Ask students to make a list of the volunteer groups and programs in their community and while working in small groups, have the students write and essay on one of the organization’s history and structure.  Hold a class discussion and consider volunteering for the organization.

• "World War II in the Local Community:" Have students study the effects of World War II on their town, create a display reflecting what they learned, locate sites where they can go on field trips, and write a report on their experience. Have them help plan a program for Veterans Day or Memorial Day honoring local veterans.

• "Recreation and Segregation:" Have students research the history of their community to see what groups faced prejudice in the past and which ones are facing it today. After they complete their research, have them present their findings to the class and discuss what they could do to promote more interaction in the community.

• "Practicing Leadership Skills:" Have students work in small groups to develop a list of activities they could undertake that would benefit their neighborhood (i.e., volunteer for a community action agency, help clean up an area, become a mentor to younger children, plant trees and shrubbery, etc.). Have them assess whether such experiences would be helpful for developing leadership skills. If possible, have the class undertake some of these projects.

• "Caring for Local Resources:" Have students list some of the places in their community or region that are visited by tourists or are of special interest to the inhabitants of the community. Have students investigate how preservation of one of the established sites is funded. Working in small groups, ask students to identify another site, one that they think ought to be preserved, but which is not yet protected. Have the groups devise a conservation plan for their site.

• "A Historic Place in Your Neighborhood:" Have students identify a historic place in your neighborhood and find out as much as they can using primary source evidence that describes the place, the people, and their daily lives. When students have gathered as much information as possible, have them work with their local historical society or other sources to develop a special exhibit for the community. Finally, have students compare and contrast the local historic site with Montpelier.

• "Nuclear and Cold War: A Shadow over the World:" Have students conduct oral histories with their parents or community members who remember the Cold War. Have students discuss their interviews in class. Students should consider donating the oral histories to a local library or historical society to preserve these stories about the Cold War for future generations.

• "Observing the Landscape:" Arrange for students to visit a local landscape, either a cemetery or park and compare it with Mount Auburn Cemetery.  Then identify how people of their community use this landscape and how they seem to feel about it. Have students assess their emotional reaction to the landscape of their local cemetery and explain why they have that feeling. Consider working with the organization that manages the cemetery to arrange a clean-up or preservation project at the cemetery.

• "Explore Your Community for Memorials:" Have students locate and visit a war memorial in their community and have them create an exhibit for the school about the memorial. If the memorial needs to be conserved, have students prepare a letter to the city or local historical society asking them for help in preserving it.
• "Local Cemeteries:" Have students inventory the veteran grave sites in the local cemetery and create a database and status report on the markers to present to the caretaker, get an unmarked grave marked with a headstone, and research how to clean and care for a historic gravestone or marker. Students should volunteer to help clean the headstones or help with the grounds upkeep.
• Have students create a biography of the life of a war veteran for whom you have located a headstone, or an ancestor who served in a war. When completed, have the students donate the biography to the local historical society or library.

• "The Auto and the Local Community:" Have students investigate the ways the automobile changed their community, whether any examples of the types of fanciful vernacular architecture or public art studied in this lesson exist or ever existed in their community, and if efforts are being made to preserve these artifacts. If there are, students might help with such preservation efforts as a class project. If there are currently no preservation efforts, students could write letters to local public officials to discuss the importance of preserving these places.

• "Places That Define the Community:" Students search out places that help create their community’s identity, prepare walking tours for newcomers and visitors, and consider appropriate action to care for or protect a place that is threatened by neglect or destructive change. Learn how a classroom teacher uses this lesson.

The Impact of Historic Preservation in Your Community

Written originally to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 in conjunction with The History Channel’s Save Our History initiative, this lesson plan on community preservation engages students with the history all around them.  The lesson emphasizes the interconnectedness among local history and identity, historic preservation, community involvement, and service learning. By discovering, investigating, and working with local properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places, students can experience a tangible piece of their shared history and contribute to the well-being of their communities.

Youth Summits

Youth Summits introduce young people to historic preservation issues and opportunities in their communities, encouraging future generations to care about and for their heritage. Summits bring teens and experts in preservation and history together to learn from each other. This website offers a thorough How-To Guide for people and institutions interested in organizing their own Youth Summit event, resources for planning the summit, and sample agendas used at successful summits in the past.

Case Studies in Service Learning

Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student, sponsored by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) Partnership, connects students to the history and heritage within their own backyards. Students become movie makers, receiving professional guidance in screenwriting, editing, photography, set design, and videography to produce mini documentaries offering their interpretation of American history. The pilot initiative of the program took place with Harpers Ferry Middle School students in conjunction with Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Now, the program has spread to surrounding schools and historic places within the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Heritage Area. For example, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and Manassas National Battlefield Park have partnered with local schools to develop Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student projects.

A Forest for Every Classroom (FFEC) is a professional development series inspired by a vision of students learning from and caring for public lands. Sponsored by Marsh Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park, the NPS Conservation Studies Institute, and other partners, FFEC gives educators the knowledge and skills to develop curriculum that fosters students' active participation in the conservation of public lands.  The FFEC teaching strategy cultivates involved students who understand and appreciate the natural and cultural resources in their communities.

A Trail to Every Classroom (TTEC), modeled after A Forest for Every Classroom, is a multi-disciplinary professional development series for educators. Sponsored by the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and partners, TTEC provides educators with the inspiration and knowledge to incorporate place-based teaching in their classrooms and foster students' understanding and appreciation of the resources related to the Appalachian Trail. The TTEC teaching strategy cultivates engaged and involved students in the conservation of their communities and other public lands, while also maintaining volunteer management of the Appalachian Trail.

A series of Colorado Youth Summits ---supported by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, Colorado Preservation, Inc., the Colorado Historical Society, and other partners---received the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Award for Federal Preserve America Accomplishment in 2010. The Youth Summits provide scholarships for Colorado students in 7th through 12th grades to participate in hands-on historic preservation activities throughout the state. Among other projects, students consulted with Colorado's First Family on interpretive programs for the Governor's Residence, worked on the Nature Conservancy's historic Zapata Ranch in the Sangre de Christo Heritage Area, and testified at the Colorado General Assembly's House Education Committee.

Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site collaborated with local public school teachers, prominent Olmsted scholars, and landscape architects to create the “Good Neighbors: Landscape design and Community Building” educational program.   This innovative, curriculum-based, program engages third grade students to learn about thoughtfully designed parks and how those parks strengthen communities.  The Good Neighbors program begins with National Park Service educators visiting students in the classroom, followed by students visiting the Frederick Law Olmsted NHS. In 2011, the Olmsted NHS received the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) "Award of Excellence" for representing an outstanding contribution to the profession of landscape architecture.

Historic Preservation as Service Learning

The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse website provides a wealth of information on service learning and historic preservation. This site defines service learning, explains how “authentic experiences with heritage resources” help instill a sense of the immediacy and relevance of the past, suggests possible types of historic preservation projects and gives real-life examples, emphasizes the benefits of these projects to both students and their communities, and lists additional useful resources.

Some Ideas to Get You Started

Service learning activities are beneficial to everyone involved. Not only will students engage in experiential learning, but, teachers will find their students excited and intrigued; students will develop a sense of independence, usefulness, and confidence; and local communities will benefit from the extra help and support. Use this list of general types of activities to inspire projects that combine service learning and historic preservation.