School Improvement Project: A Mini-Grant Story 

Ms. Hull is a 7th grade teacher fromIndiana who says, "I feel if is important for students to understand that they can make a difference in their community and that they can use what we learn in the classroom to accomplish that."  

Ms. Hull's students completed the service-learning project called School Improvement Project by infusing the Learning to Give Environmental Service Toolkit and awarded mini-grant.

Students chose to focus on school improvement and researched and created plans to complete service projects. Students gained leadership experience, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving skills. They were also able to identify how energy transforms through a system to create new things and how simple machines help complete activities while reducing the amount of work necessary.   

"I had to take a picture to show my mom what I did today!" said one student.

Another said, "It is cool to know that what we learn in school actually helps us out!" 

A few others said, "I can't wait to be an 8th grader and create our own mural for our class" and "I wish people would clean their caps before donating them... (pause) maybe we should have put that on the flyers". 

By reflecting on what went well and what else would have been beneficial, these students will surely continue to grow in their leadership and problem solving skills!   

The $1,000 mini-grant helped Ms. Hull and her students purchase gloves, garden soil, wood, nails, plants, water sealant, and paint brushes. The grant money allowed students to see their plans and ideas come to fruition.   

"Without the grant money they would only have had the ideas, but with funding they saw that they could turn their ideas into action," said Ms. Hull. "And, their action created something usable and needed in the school community!"