Giving back to the community and caring for others are values you want to instill in your children, but how do you make a canned food drive a learning experience and not just a chore?

That’s a question the new service learning curriculum from the National 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System (4-HCCS) helps young people in middle school and high school explore experientially.

Structured using the 4-H youth development program’s classic “hands-on” learning model, the curriculum features two 40-page youth guides, one for middle school and the other for high school, as well as a 40-page helper’s guide. The materials can be used by students working on their own or in school classrooms, homeschool groups, or 4-H clubs.

Agents of Change uses a “special agent” theme to help middle school students plan and conduct their own service learning projects. Activities help youth plan a project, reflect on their experience, deliver a speech, write a newsletter, create medals to recognize contributors, and involve news media.

The Raise My Voice guide empowers high schoolers to investigate problems and potential solutions through a community survey and public forum. They also learn risk management techniques, weigh ethical issues, develop career skills, and create presentations about their experiences.

The Service Learning Helper’s Guide features group activities and advice. Activities include community mapping, journal exploration, creating a video diary, building a website, and preparing a time capsule.

Rather than having a service project handed to them, youth investigate problems and assets in their community on their own. Based on their research and interests, they design their own service learning project.

It’s an approach that works. “Because these guides build on a young person’s interests, they are engaged in learning naturally,” said Tom Zurcher, executive director of 4-HCCS, which publishes more than 200 experiential curriculum titles annually on a host of topics. “We’ve found over the years that young people learn best by being grounded in a subject and exploring by doing, probing, and understanding.”

Life skills and national education standards are identified for every activity. Each activity is anchored in 4-H’s signature five-step experiential learning cycle—experiencing, sharing, processing, generalizing, and applying. Reflective questions at the end of each activity guide youth through these cognitive steps and demonstrate how what they have just learned relates to real life.

Additional activities are suggested to supplement the guides and aid youth who want to do more. A website at www. n4hccs.org/servicelearning provides journaling prompts, additional resources, and even a bonus activity.

Young people using these materials are strongly encouraged to journal throughout their service learning experience to aid reflection. The website contains journaling prompts for each activity, which encourage writing skills. Youth are also encouraged to “journal” through photographs, scrapbooking, drawing, and audio diaries.

Zurcher says that the “caring adult helper’s” role is critical to supporting learning. “It can be difficult sometimes as adults, because we want to provide the instruction, but 4-HCCS’s approach to learning means that we create a safe environment for a young person to explore a topic and get messy. We think learning happens best when it is self-initiated.”

Research shows that service learning can offer many benefits to youth. A 2003 study found that students in grades 7-12 who participated in service learning reported more cognitive engagement (e.g., paying more attention to schoolwork and putting forth effort) in English/language arts than nonparticipants.

Service learning can also help youth develop civic and social responsibility. Research shows that students engaged in service learning programs are more likely to consider how to cause social change, increase their awareness of government, and see a connection between politics and morality.

The full set, including two youth guides and a helper’s guide, costs $11.50. If purchased individually, the guides are $3.95. The National 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System is a leading curriculum agency for the 4-H youth movement and publishes more than 200 titles annually. Topics include aerospace, animal sciences, communications, computers, electricity, horticulture, science, sewing, and more. For more information, go to www.n4hccs.org.

Ami Neiberger-Miller coordinated the design team for this project in 2005 and worked in 4-H youth development programs in Florida and at the national level. She can be reached at ami@steppingstoneLLC.com.