These Learning Links provide ten quick-and-easy, five-minute mini-lessons to promote student thought and dialogue about service and civic engagement. You may use as many of them as you wish, and in whatever order best meets your needs and the interest of your students. The purpose of these mini-lessons is to provide a deeper understanding of philanthropy (the giving of time, talent, and treasure for the common good) and to reinforce the lesson focus. These Learning Links also promote the development of character traits, civic engagement, and student leadership. As appropriate to your grade level, it is recommended that students play an active leadership role in presenting these mini-lessons to their classmates.

1. Read: Have you seen the movie Super Size Me? It’s a 2004 Academy Award nominated documentary film, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. An edited version of the film was designed to be integrated into a high school health curriculum. The reason for this is that Spurlock took on the fast food industry in an attempt to show that fast food failed to provide him with proper nutrition that resulted in his growing fat and unhealthy. During the filming, Spurlock dined at a fast food restaurant three times a day, sampling every item on the chain's menu at least once. He consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day during the experiment. When his experiment began, 32 year old Spurlock was healthy and slim. He stood 6 feet 2 inches tall with a body weight of 185.5 pounds.  After just thirty days, he gained 24.5 pounds, a 13% body mass increase, moving him from his once 'healthy' weigh range to being 'overweight'. He also experienced mood swings, liver damage, and various other unhealthy symptoms. Once the experiment was over, it took him fourteen months to lose the weight he gained. Although it is not known to have been the direct cause, shortly after the documentary was released, many fast food restaurants began to offer healthier menu items in addition to their customary fare.
   
   Discuss: Why do you think Morgan Spurlock “took on” the fast food industry? Some critics of the experiment said that Spurlock really went too far in consuming as many calories as he did to prove his point, do you agree? The average American actually consumes 3,790 calories a day, in stark contrast is a country like Zimbabwe. There the daily average consumption has been dropping over the last 20 years. From 2000-2002 the average person’s daily consumption there was 2,020 calories. How might we use all of this information to help us decide how and what to contribute to our service project? Why might it be important that we consider the nutritional values of the items we contribute to our service project?
   
    
2. Read:  In parts of today’s world if someone refers to a person as having a full plate it means that person has a lot to do; a lot of responsibility. “He or she already has a full plate” is typically said either as general information or as a sympathetic response to not giving that person additional work to do or responsibilities to shoulder. In other parts of the world the words a full plate would have an entirely different meaning. It would be the opposite of having an empty plate which is the reality for more than 852 million people, or about 13 percent of the world’s population. According to FAO (the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization) the people who make up this “empty plate” figure do not have enough food or enough nutritional food each day to sustain a healthy life.
   
   Discuss: So while a full plate might be something to avoid in parts of today’s world it is something to be hoped for in other parts of the world. In what ways is our service project an attempt to shoulder some additional responsibility for empty plates? Some of our peers might already feel that they have full plate- many places to go and many things to do, activities that might not include helping to fill empty plates. How can we share with them that during our Drive, this “additional responsibility” will not overburden them?
   
    
3. Read: Over the years the Star Fish Story has become very popular. While many versions of this story have been told, you may recall the general idea of the story being about an elderly man and a starfish. It seems that an early morning tide brought in and stranded thousands of starfish on the beach. An elderly man, out for a morning stroll along the beach, noticed these thousands of stranded starfish and began tossing them one-by-one back into the sea in an effort to save them from sure death. A young jogger on the beach, coming upon this scene and determining what appeared to him as a useless rescue attempt, asked the elderly man of what value his efforts were against such impossible odds of rescuing all the starfish. While picking up yet another starfish and pausing for only the briefest of moments, the elderly man held out the starfish in his hand to the jogger and said as he turned to toss it back into the sea, ”It’s of value to this one!”
   
   Discuss: Realizing that there are all kinds of nonprofit, for profit, as well as government agencies, who focus their efforts on providing food for needy people throughout the world on a grand scale, of what value is our little service project? How might our participation in our drive be like that of the elderly man in his rescue attempts of the starfish? To whom might it be of value?
   www.cedu.niu.edu/~fulmer/starfish.htm
   
    
4. Read: Horace (December 8, 65 B.C.- November 27, 8 B.C.)  was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. He wrote many Latin phrases that remain in use even today, one of his more contemporary ones being carpe diem. It is an admonition to “seize the day". To make the most of everyday  After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace joined the army against Augustus, serving under the generalship of Brutus, but he found himself on the losing side and when the war ended and amnesty was declared, Horace returned to Italy, only to find his estate confiscated and himself reduced to poverty. It was then that he was credited with having penned these words, “Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.”
   
   Discuss: How might the two phrases penned by Horace mentioned in this reading be used to remind ourselves of the importance of being involve in our service project? How might we use these phrases to encourage others to participate as well?
   
    
5. Read: Named after the first mate in the novel Moby Dick, Starbucks is the considered to be one of the fastest growing coffeehouse chains in the world. It serves dripped brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, snacks and items such as mugs and coffee beans.
   In an effort to attract customers who care about the environment, Starbucks is now using to-go cups made with 10 percent recycled material. A spokesperson from the company said it was the first time that a national food chain had incorporated recycled material into packaging that comes into direct contact with food or beverages. Using an estimated 1.5 billion cups annually, Starbucks also uses recycled paper to construct its cardboard cup sleeves, napkins and cardboard carriers.  Despite what appears to be a small fraction of the recycled content in the new cups, Starbucks said the move would have considerable environmental effect, saving approximately five million pounds of virgin tree fiber a year. Recently the company has taken to adding The Way I See It quotes to its to-go cups in an effort to further their pro-green environmental movement. The following quote by Losang Rabgey (co-founder of MACHIK, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support strategies that promote the sustainable development and strengthening of local communities on the Tibetan plateau.) recently appeared on one of their cups:“My cousin in Tibet is an illiterate subsistence farmer. By accident of birth, I was raised in the West and have a PhD. The task of our generation is to cut through the illusion that we inhabit separate worlds. Only then will we find the heart to rise to the daunting but urgent challenges of global disparity.”
   
   Discuss: While so much more still needs to be done, in what ways are other companies that you know about attempting to “walk their pro-green environmental talk”? Do you think companies who “walk their pro-environmental talk” are making an impact and convincing others to join in these efforts? Why or why not?  Why might it be so easy to forget about those “less fortunate”? What “illusion” is our service project hoping to "cut through”? How will the success of our drive help to challenge “disparity” in our own community?
   
    
6. Read: Organic foods are fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and poultry, and other items that are produced without the use of conventional pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones. This way of producing food is known as “environmentally friendly farming” or “green farming”. To be able to print the word Organic on a package, the item must be certified by regulatory agencies. Not only are organic foods considered by many to be better for you, they are better for the environment. While the organic food market is growing rapidly, the major problem seems to be that prices tend to be higher for organic products than conventional products. There are many reasons for this.  One reason is the economics of the “law of supply and demand”. This means that because the organic food supply is limited compared to that of the more conventional foods, those who demand “organic” wind up paying the higher prices to get it. According to marketing experts, if enough people demanded organic foods, it would force the conventional food suppliers to move toward the production of organic foods. That would lower prices due to the increase in organic food suppliers. According to one health expert, “The problem is we still have the mentality in this country that we would rather spend “big” money on what we wear than what we put into our bodies. When is the last time you heard someone say wow! I paid eight bucks for that special head of organically grown lettuce and I got this Rolex watch for a buck and a half? It’s like we have this really sharp looking Mercedes automobile to ride around in and show off to all our friends but we are satisfied to put low octane fuel in the tank, because people don’t see the fuel.”
   
   Discuss: Many experts agree that the benefit of the added cost for organic foods is worth it to our health and the health of our environment.  Why do you think some people seem to be more willing to pay the higher prices for what they wear than for what they eat? Knowing what we know about eating healthy, why do you think producers continue to produce foods by conventional methods? As our service project approaches why might it be important to weigh the difference between donating “organic food” and donating “more conventional foods”? What are some things we could donate that would help provide a “better grade” of food for those in need?
   
    
7. Read:  The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. Its stated mission is "to inform, educate and entertain" and its motto is "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation". Recently, the BBC announced that the United Nations Millennium Development Goal aims to halve the proportion of hungry people in the world by 2015. Right now more than 850 million people know what it’s like to go to bed hungry every night, and this number is growing. While in measurable terms, there is sufficient food available to feed the entire global population of 6.4 billion people, most of the world’s hungry simply do not have the money to buy or produce it. People in poverty stricken areas, like Haiti, have come to know what a real mud pie tastes like because for many living there, it is their only sources of calcium. When asked what it would cost to provide a healthy school lunch for a hungry child in a developing country, the answer is “What it would cost to purchase three pieces of chewing gum.”
   
   Discuss: When you hear things like this what comes to mind? How will our drive serve to meet the needs of some those individuals who “simply do not have the money to buy or produce their own food”? When so little is needed to provide so much, why do you think many people in the world still suffer from lack of food?
   
    
8. Read: In our history studies, we probably read about the Great Depression, a time when the economy of the nation was greatly impacted by the Stock Market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. While it started in the United States, the economic downturn spread to every part of the world. Everyone regardless of status, position or employment felt the negative impact of the crash. Mining, logging, trading, construction, manufacturing, and industries all drastically reduced their employees and many closed their doors leaving workers with few if any employment alternatives. If any one group fared better than another did during these hard times, they were usually the farmers. Even though in good times they were often the most poorly compensated group of workers ‘they at least were able to put food on the table’ during the not so good times.
   
   Discuss:  In these more prosperous times, is the ability ‘to put food on the table’ a measure of success? Why do you think some of our most poorly compensated workers of today, are unable ‘to put food on their table’ when back in the Depression Era many of them were able to do so? How might our drive help lift the depression of those who are poor?
   
    
9. Read: Glasses for Humanity is all about collecting as many of the nearly 280 million pair of prescription eyeglasses, reading glasses, and non-prescription sunglasses that are being discarded in the United States each year as possible. Robert Tolmach, President of Glasses for Humanity admits that when he left the business world he wanted to do something that would “make the greatest possible difference”.  He discovered that billions of people in the world and millions of children in the United States can’t see clearly. In fact, millions of people needlessly go blind each year from avoidable or treatable causes. This makes education, safety and productivity, and the chance to lead a fulfilling life very difficult if not impossible for them. Perhaps most of us take our sight for granted. We never ever think about being without it. Most of us take this same approach toward food. We never ever think about being without it. And yet we know that according to the recent publication of State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006, over 850 million people across the world are hungry and almost 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes. That is one child every five seconds.
   
   Discuss: What do you think would motivate people to take the time to donate their old glasses to programs like Glasses for Humanity? Why do those who might have glasses to donate, find it easier to just toss them in the trash than donate them to a worthy cause such as Glasses for Humanity? What are some things we could do to motivate our peers to take the time to be involved in our service project?  In what ways might our service project efforts “make the greatest possible difference”?
   www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/
   hunger-facts-international.html
   
    
10. Read:  A vegan is someone whose philosophy and lifestyle avoids using any products for food, clothing, or any other purpose that are derived from animals. The most popular reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Typically there are pros and cons to issues like this one. While vegan diets, have been credited with lowering the risk of colon cancer, heart attack, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, and stroke; people who strictly adhere to these types of diet have been found to be low in levels of calcium, iodine, and vitamins B12 and D which can lead to its own set of illness and deficiencies.
    
    In many parts of our world people are too busy trying to stay alive to worry themselves about what they eat. A researcher, studying the eating habits of Third World countries reports, “People in Third World countries tend to eat whatever is available. Some of the stuff you see people eating on reality TV is everyday fare for many, if they are lucky. It’s not uncommon that people in these countries eat crickets, maggots, and worms as well as tree bark and grasses.”
    
    Discuss:  In what ways might our drive provide people with a balanced approach to eating? Do you think starving people in Third World countries would be too concerned about what types of food a Drive such as ours might provide them? Why might it important that we donate our drive collection to an organization dedicated to distributing such collections?

Reflection plays a very important role in promoting student learning. The following suggested activities are ways to help students reflect on their learning after they have participated in a service event.  Choose one or more of the activities most appropriate to the service event and your students.

ACTIVITY ONE:
Put four “table coverings” (large sheets of butcher paper) in locations around the room.  Place one of the following headings on each “table covering”

The Service Project(What did we actually do during the event?),
The Feelings (What were some of the thoughts/emotions that we had while participating in this event?),
The Impact (What do we think were the results/impacts of our involvement in this event?),
The Improvement (What could be done to make this service project even more successful next time?).

Assign each student to one of four groups giving each group a color marker and a starting “table covering”.  Have the students, in their groups, respond to the prompts written on their starting “table covering”.  (NOTE: Each group is to use the same color marker to record their thoughts and ideas on each “table covering”.)  After 2-5 minutes, have the students rotate clockwise to the next “table covering” with their marker in hand.  They are to first read what the first group wrote before writing their response to the prompt.  After 2-5 minutes the rotation continues until all of the groups have been to each table and have returned to their originally assigned table to read all the comments made by the other groups.  Depending on time, a classroom discussion could conclude this activity or it can be just as effective as a reflection activity without further discussion. 

ACTIVITY TWO:
Have the students share the many ways that information is communicated to the public in today’s world (i.e. radio, TV, Internet, etc.). Have the students talk about the kinds of information that are being shared. Focus on commercials and ads. Talk about how media has utilized the varied forms of communication to promote commercial products and services. Ask the students to think about how commercial products and services might have been advertised prior to all of the communication systems we use today. Lead them to understand that prior to all of our modern day communication systems, most advertising was done using handbills, signboards, and posters.  Share the fact that while each of these types of communicating information is still being used in some form today, the poster is the most popular of the three. 

Inform the class that they are being asked to make posters that can be displayed in this classroom next year to advertise this service project just completed. The poster should serve as an effective way to promote and motivate students to become involved in this service project next year. Assign students to groups of three. Give each group an assortment of art materials for poster making and a poster or a large piece of paper.  Tell the students that the poster is to convey the following information:
 

1. The name of this service project (and the date, if known)
2. The focus of this service project (what is supposed to happen?)
3. The motivations for being involved in this service project (why participate?)
4. The anticipated outcome(s) of this service project (what difference will it make?)
    

If time permits have each group show and talk about their completed poster. Collect the posters for display.

ACTIVITY THREE:

Tell the students that most people don’t have a lot of trouble making a decision to do or not do something. However, very few people give much thought to why they make the decisions that they do. Each of us has a personal style when it comes to making decisions.  Have the students take an involvement style test that will help them better understand how they think when confronted with the need to make a decision, like whether or not to become involved in a project or activity. Have the students select from among the animal character-types listed below, which one they most closely resemble when it comes to making a decision to involve themselves in a project or activity:

• A turtle: Usually I’m not too willing to stick out my neck
• A possum: Usually when I’m asked to something I play “dead”
• A porcupine: Usually when I’m asked to do something, I get “bristle-ly”
• A snail: Usually when I’m asked to do something I am pretty slow to commit.
• A sheep: Usually I just follow the crowd and do what they do.
• A St. Bernard: Usually, I’m pretty helpful but only when I’m really needed.
• A Giraffe: Usually, I need to see the big picture before I am willing to commit
• A Hawk: Usually I have excellent instincts and hit the target on the fly.
• An Owl: Usually, I weigh the pros and cons before I act
• A Mule: Usually, I need someone to force me to do something
• A Beaver: Usually I just dive in and go to work before I’m even told to do so.
• An Ostrich: Usually I bury my head hoping I won’t have to decide.

(Suggest that if there are other animal character-types not listed here that even more closely represent ones involvement style, to feel free to use that animal character type instead.
 
 
Have the students group themselves by their selected involvement style. (NOTE: Include a miscellaneous group for those without a match or be prepared to mix and match groups so no one is alone.)  In these groupings, have the students share what it’s like for them to make decisions using their involvement style and under what conditions might they change their typical involvement style and why? Reconvene the class and lead a discussion concerning the involvement styles of the students when making the decision to become involved in this service project? How was their involvement style typical of or different from their usual involvement style? For each involvement style, what might be the best approach to take when trying to promoting this service project next year?

ACTIVITY FOUR:
Take a few minutes for students to share why (what were their motivations) they decided to get involved in this service project. Then read the five scenarios below and tell the students that they will be asked to make a decision about which scenario they would respond to/help out with’ if required to select one of the five:

Scenario One: The Appadoca’s home has recently burned leaving the entire family of five virtually homeless. A volunteer agency, that helps families relocate after a disaster, has decided to build the Appadoca’s a new home.  They are in need of people to help out on Saturdays with a variety of skills.

Scenario Two: Mr. Sang is in the hospital recovering from an injury he experienced while using a piece of equipment at the local lumber company.  Mrs. Sang finds it very difficult to visit her husband in the hospital because she has no family in the area to help her take care of her three small children.  The local faith-based organization has asked if anyone would be willing and able to baby sit the children for two hours one night a week so Mrs. Sang can run her errands and visit her husband in the hospital.

Scenario Three: The local soup kitchen is in need of cooks and servers on Friday nights from 5-7 p.m. for the month of October. In filling out their schedule with their regular volunteers, they discovered that not enough volunteers are available in October.

Scenario Four: A local agency, that supplies volunteers to help the elderly who are still living in their own homes with fall clean-up, are in desperate need of leaf-rakers and people who can do light odd jobs that help prepare these older people’s homes for the winter months ahead.  They ask if anyone in the community might be able to help out on the Friday following Thanksgiving.

Scenario Five: A local Salvation Army has put out a request for ‘bell ringers’ for the 4-6 p.m. time period each Tuesday between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

Have the students select the one scenario that they feel they would most likely ‘respond to/become involved in’ and then have them jot down on paper three reasons why they selected the scenario they did.  Designate five different areas in the classroom and have the students move to the designated area that corresponds with their selected scenario.  In the groups, have the students take turns reading the reasons why they selected the scenario that they did.  Have them look for similarities and differences in motivation.

OPTIONAL: Rearrange the groups so that there is at least one representative of each scenario selected.  (Obviously it is highly unlikely that this will all come out even.) In these mixed groups, once again have the students share their selected scenario and the three reasons why they selected the scenario they did.  Once again look for similarities and differences.

Have the students share their conclusions during a whole group discussion. Encourage the class to explore answers to the following questions: Were the motivations for being involved in the same scenario always the same?  Were the motivations for being involved in different scenarios always different?  Did the motivations cover such things as Feelings? Abilities? Impacts? Convenience? How did the motivations involved in this scenario activity compare to those talked about earlier in relation to our recent service project?