How is service learning different from
community service?
Picking up trash on a riverbank is service.
Studying water samples under a microscope is learning.
When science students collect and analyze water samples, document their results, and present findings to a local pollution control agency — that is service learning.
-National Youth Leadership Council
Service Learning Program
Caring For People and Places
Service Learning at Prospect Sierra School
Whether actively involved in improving the world through earth stewardship and social justice projects — or simply discovering and appreciating the diverse and complex community outside the doors of our classrooms — civic engagement is a deeply held value and teaching tool at Prospect Sierra School.
Service learning projects are integrated into the core curriculum at every grade level and also happen as school-wide events. When children learn through their own experience, they become more deeply involved with the issues of our time and love learning because it has relevance. Teachers, parents, and students tell us that some of their most touching, hopeful moments are those where they are engaged in “real-world, real time” projects. Read some of their stories, see the ways service learning is tailored to the mission and motto of our school, “heart, mind, community,” and learn about our community partners — just follow the links on this page.
Each spring we celebrate at the Avis campus by hosting a fair filled with interactive, educational booths designed by our middle school students, a selection of over 15 environmental workshops, theater, and keynote speakers. The Tapscott campus celebrates with a waste-free outdoor picnic.
Several years ago, after Prospect Sierra students won award money from West Contra Costa County for their greening of our school. The Student Council voted to invest the prize as seed money for an annual award in honor of Prospect Sierra alumni who are social innovators — tackling some of the world's most pressing environmental and social issues in fresh creative ways — and inspiring our community with their vision and courage.
Service Learning Curriculum Integration
Service learning experiences are integrated into the core humanities curriculum in exciting ways at every grade level, sometimes in collaboration with science, math, world languages, art, theater, music, and library technology. Here are just a few examples.
Fifth Grade (pdf download) — Students visit with their Richmond College Preparatory buddies.
Sixth Grade — Students created a website based on their studies on sustainability.
Seventh Grade — Student podcasts, videos, magazine articles, and websites about changemakers.
Elementary School
The focus of our K–4 program is wonder, care, delight, joy in connection, falling in love with all kinds of people and the natural world, and sparking curiosity to inquire further. When children understand, they care, and when they care they feel a natural urge to protect, be involved, and continue learning.
Kindergarten — Caring for Ourselves, One Another, and the Earth
Canyon Trail Park serves as an outdoor classroom where children deepen their connection to the earth. They learn basic ecology, participate in creek restoration projects, and grow native plants.
First Grade — Understanding and Participating in our Community, Learning Where Food Comes From, and Helping Local Farmers
First graders delve into projects that enliven, serve, and help build our school community. Students research how different communities work, are stewards of the school garden; sort and distribute CSA boxes from Full Belly Farm, and study the work of César Chávez.
Second Grade — Learning About Local Birds and How to Protect Them
Through bird walks, related field trips, presentations by naturalists, art, science, and literature, the second graders become experts at locating and identifying birds in Canyon Trail Park. They share their field research with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory.
Third Grade — Learning Sign Language, Communicating with CEID Buddies
Empathy, relationship, and creative problem solving are at the core of the third graders experience with their preschool buddies at the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID). The desire to connect and bond with their buddies provides a meaningful context for learning sign language, exploring differences, revising assumptions, and reflecting on the needs of others.
Fourth Grade — “No Child Left Inside”
How can we reduce our ecological footprint? Fourth graders learn about advocacy by writing letters to organizations they believe could improve efforts with the 4 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot. They also partner with younger students at MLK Elementary School in Richmond to green our schools together.
Middle School
5–8 grade students apply knowledge and understanding of science, history, world languages, and the arts to better our communities and draw connections between our personal actions and the kind of world we want to inhabit. We are equiping tomorrow’s leaders with the tools needed to create a better world.
Fifth Grade — How have the experiences and contributions of different racial, religious, and ethnic groups shaped the United States?
What roles do knowledge of different backgrounds and empathy play in establishing mutual respect, and what obstacles can get in the way of mutual respect? In addition to participating in the Mosaic Project, a community and human relations outdoor school, the fifth graders partner around literacy and experiential science with second and third graders at Richmond College Preparatory School.
Sixth Grade — Sustainability Past, Present, and Future
As part of their yearlong studies about sustainability, the sixth graders analyze the sustainability of the middle school culture and create a sixth grade bill of rights, examine ancient societies through the lens of sustainability, and make personal pledges about changing their own habits to help create a more sustainable lifestyle and world. Each class spends a week at Live Power Community Farm where they are exposed to living with low impact. They visit farms, interview farmers, and learn about agri-business and organic farming, social justice issues, migrant farm workers, and the challenges of being a farmer and then create a website and movie to inform and educate others.
Seventh Grade — Agents of Change
What makes a person a changemaker and who are the people solving the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems? Students explore how individuals play a role in bringing about societal change and research local community members who are working on issues of social justice. Applying 21st century multimedia skills, the seventh graders translate their essays into podcasts, information videos, magazine articles and websites to inform a larger audience and inspire others to get involved.
8th Grade — From Stories to Action
Doing the work of mature historians, eighth graders interview and record the specific, contextualized, and compelling stories of people who lived through WWII. The senior participants feel recognized and understood for the sacrifices they have made. The eighth graders connect generalized historical knowledge to real life stories. The eighth graders also spend a week in Los Angeles working on issues of poverty, homelessness, hunger, educational inequities, and the environment.
