Service learning courses underway with help of mini-grants


Fri, 02/26/2016

author

Amanda Schwegler

LAWRENCE — Eight faculty members and their respective service learning community partners have received $500 mini-grants from the Center for Civic and Social Responsibility for the spring 2016 semester. Recipients represent five areas of study and two campuses.

Students in these service learning classes will be working with community partners on a variety of projects, such as: leading group music sessions at the Lawrence Public Library's Sound/Vison Lab; creating educational messages about the realities of living with chronic pain in Kansas City; and building a sensory pavilion for the public garden at Audio Reader. 

Mini-grants are given to support best practices in service learning and mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships. The funds help cover costs incurred by service learning classes due to their real-world efforts and effects, such as project materials, focus group incentives or transportation costs.

Applications for fall 2016 mini-grants will be announced late spring semester, and the online applications will be posted on the CCSR website: ccsr.ku.edu.

The spring 2016 Service Learning Mini Grant Award recipients:

Joan Augustyn
Clinical assistant professor
Occupational Therapy Education
Service Learning Course
OCTH 422/482 - Analysis and Adaptation of Occupations

Community Partner
The Coalition for Independence (CFI)

Course Description
Occupational therapy students work with CFI clients to help young adults with disabilities through transition periods and to help adults with disabilities who live at home. Students provide occupational therapy services with the guidance of a supervisor. These services may include interventions such as recommending adapted equipment, doing home safety assessments, analyzing client tasks for vocational skills and assisting client success with interest activities. Authentic environments give students the chance to understand contextual factors and to learn and practice professionalism.

Evan Dean
Clinical assistant professor
Occupational Therapy Education

 

Service Learning Course
OCTH 422/482 - Analysis and Adaptation of Occupations

Community Partner
Mosaic of NE Kansas

Course Description
Employment outcomes for people with intellectual disability (ID) are poor across the country. Mosaic, an organization dedicated to building meaningful lives for people with intellectual disabilities, has identified employment as a critical need for their clients. Occupational therapy students address this need by preparing adults with ID for employment. All activities and objectives that SL students experience at Mosaic have been identified or approved by staff at Mosaic and are designed to meet the needs of the students as well as address needs at Mosaic.   

Abbey Dvorak
Assistant professor
Music Education &
Music Therapy


 

Service Learning Course
MEMT 196 - Group Leadership Skills

Community Partners
Independence Inc.; the Lawrence Public Library

Course Description
Students in this class continue a yearlong service learning sequence that initially began with volunteering at a variety of community partners during their music therapy introductory course (MEMT 150). This semester they add music to their volunteer work in response to the identified needs of the community partners. The course allows students to develop music therapy group leadership skills (e.g., leading group singing, developing effective delivery skills) and become more skillful at working with people of a variety of ages, needs, cultures, diagnoses and backgrounds.
Farhana Ferdous
Lecturer
Architecture


 
Service Learning Course
ARCH 381 - Designing Sustainable Futures

Community Partner
KU Center for Sustainability

Course Description
Students will design bicycle parking solutions, including bike sheds and bike corrals, to serve KU Lawrence residence halls in collaboration with the KU Center for Sustainability. This project will enhance student understanding of supporting nonprofit and community-based initiatives as a designer, and will address "triple-bottom-line sustainability" in the design process.

Mugur Geana
Associate professor
Journalism

Service Learning Course
JOUR 640 - Strategic Campaigns

Community Partner
The Center for Practical Bioethics (CPB)

Course Description
This course works with a CPB project called Decreasing Chronic Pain in Kansas City and will partner with CPB to address attitudes and beliefs about living with chronic pain in Kansas City. Using a community-based research approach, students will design messages and strategies that are generic in nature but that can be tailored by any community organization that aims to address the problem of chronic pain. The students, under the instructor's guidance, will use evidence-based approaches for the development of messages and the associated communication strategy.
Germaine Halegoua
Assistant Professor
Film & Media Studies
Service Learning Course
FMS 302/702 - Digital Storytelling

Community Partners
The Willow Domestic Violence Center, the Lawrence Pedestrian Coalition, the Lawrence Public Library and the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and the KU Libraries

Course Description
Digital storytelling incorporates the study and production of interactive storytelling on multiple platforms with an emphasis on community and client-driven storytelling for the final project. Over the course of the semester, students are paired with a community, nonprofit or cultural organization that will serve as their client. Students meet regularly with a representative from the organization in order to listen to and assess the needs of their partner organizations and then create a digital storytelling project that directly addresses those needs and goals.
Chad Kraus
Assistant professor
Architecture
Service Learning Course
ARCH 509 - Architectural Design IV

Community Partner
Audio-Reader

Course Description
Students will be designing and building a new sensory pavilion for Audio-Reader, as the current structure is nearing the end of its useful lifespan. In addition to improving this feature of the Audio-Reader sensory garden for the public, the students will learn to design and detail modest works of architecture, to create and maintain schedules and budgets, to source materials and products, and to work with clients, consultants and city officials. The real-world nature of design-build projects requires that all of these learning goals be achieved to successfully bring the project to fruition.
Jeff Radel
Associate professor
Occupational Therapy Education
Service Learning Course
OCTH 422/482 - Analysis and Adaptation of Occupations

Community Partner
CHAMPS Achievers American Karate

Course Description
Occupational therapy students work with CHAMPS Achievers martial arts students with special needs. This collaboration supports KU student appreciation of the varied psychosocial factors affecting occupational performance and the variety of strategies available to adapt this environment for the needs of the dojo’s students. During two classes on Monday nights at CHAMPS Achievers, OT students support dojo students, guiding participation in self-defense and other physical activities, and supporting positive social experiences. More experienced dojo students engage in opportunities to teach the OT students along with the instructors. Both guiding and learning from students at CHAMPS helps OT students recognize and promote emergent occupational therapy practice in a unique setting.
     

Fri, 02/26/2016

author

Amanda Schwegler

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Amanda Schwegler