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Contact: Julie Rogers Bascom
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Media Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EPS students complete year-long service learning project with day of service at Eden Wood Center Edina, Minn., May 14, 2010 – For the second consecutive year, more than 300 sixth-grade students from Valley View Middle School (VVMS) spent the day of May 12 doing service projects at Eden Wood Center, a program center providing services for children and adults with developmental disabilities. This year, the project incorporated service learning, combining what students learn in the classroom with real world actions and solutions. In the classroom students learned about plant cycles, invasive species, and disabilities. At Eden Wood Center, students planted the vegetables and flowers they started in class, removed over eight truckloads of buckthorn and garlic mustard, spread wood chips on trails, and cleaned up the campsite and beach area. In the fall, these students participated in team building activities at the Team Quest Challenge Course at Eden Wood Center, completing group challenges that required input from each student. This day of service follows that, and culminates the year-long service learning project. Students’ efforts will prepare Eden Wood Center for upcoming camp programs that benefit children, teens and adults with disabilities. Service learning offers a unique opportunity for young people to get involved with their communities in a tangible way by integrating service projects with classroom learning. Service learning engages students in the educational process, using what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems. VVMS students reflected before the day with conversations with experts about buckthorn and invasive species, with people with disabilities or who have someone with a disability in their family. Student leaders led conversations with their classmates after their experience to reflect on what they learned and how they served. The event was produced with the help of Home Depot for its generous donation of garden tools, to the City of Edina for the use of their buckthorn pullers and to the Edina Education Fund. Edina Public Schools service learning efforts are funded in part by the Learn and Serve America Program. For more information, contact Julie Rogers Bascom, service learning coordinator, at julrogersbascom@edina.k12.mn.us. About Edina Public Schools: ###  |
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