| OCR Text |
Show , Fall 2006 page 7 Learning How to Serve: nspiring Motivation BY STEVEN WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHS BY KENDRA HORN Before the Citifront Apartment complex was built, there was an abandoned bowling alley at 631 W. North Temple. Behind the apartments is a ruined factory building, the remains of a 2004 fire. Farther west the former Frontier Pies restaurant has been repainted and turned into a Leatherby's ice-cream parlor. At the heart of these new developments Maged Senbel's graduate workshop ---------------------- in the urban planning department has found a niche where the students work with the Neighborhood Housing Association on future developments. Suite 50 of Citifront Apartments has become a design war-room for the West side. The 14 students of Senbel's workshop showed off their initial research for critics from the Neighborhood Housing Association, architects and planners in the community. This stage involved community mapmaking, much more than just laying out streets. The maps, with the help of photos, statistics and quotes from residents-all imposed on the map itself-document topics such as crime rates, government boundaries, transportation, land use and incomes. Later, development solutions will be suggested for the community. The School of Business sent a student to the class to help with financial feasibility issues and learn more about real-estate aspects. Senbel's class is one of 130 service-learning courses on campus. The program began in 1992 to get students involved in the community through projects and partnerships. In service-learning, students apply concepts in real-life situations. The Bennion Center's service-learning "It's a different type of learning - active versus sitting - spitting the information out for a text. Students can get involved in the learning process." faculty primer credits the work of psychologists such as Jean Piaget for setting the foundation in active learning methodology. The psychology department uses service-learning as one of six modes of learning. The other modes include research, technology, everyday psychology, collaborative learning, and writing/communication. The modes of learning program lets the psychology department practice what theorists have preached. "The traditional way is students in seats, teacher in front of the class. But, research shows ---------------------- that multiple modes help. Students can be active-working with others, talking about it. When people are teaching, they are learning things better," said Dr. Carol Sansone, professor of psychology. Joani Shaver, Manager of Service-Learning at the Bennion Center, agrees that the program is unique. "It is a different type of learning-active versus sitting-spitting the information out for a test. Students can get involved in the learning process," Shaver said. "Instead of just learning about accounting, they might help a non-profit organization with a spreadsheet and apply that learning." During the summer of 2004, Artem Kopelev, a junior who is triple majoring in biology, math and international studies, enrolled in an organic biology course listed with the service-learning attribute. The class taught principles of gardening, agriculture and sustainability. Along with regular course work, the students grew their own gardens. Some students would attend to their plants every other day, watering, trimming and just seeing how much they had grown. Kopelev and his partner grew four tomato and eight sweet pepper plants, and when they were ripe, the vegetables were |
