Faculty Scholar Course Descriptions

Name: Christina Armistead
Department: English
Course: ENGL 2000/ENGL 1001
Students studying global issues partnered with the English Language Orientation Program to participate as conversation partners with international students at LSU.  

 

Name: Estanislado Barrera
Department: Education: Curriculum and Instruction
Course: EDCI 7105
Education students facilitated a summer reading program for youth at a neighboring library.

 

Name: Irina Shport  
Department: English
Course: ENGL 7105
Students learned about second language pedagogy in the classroom and developed their language teaching skills by working with English Language Learners (ELLs) at McKinley High School.

 

Name: Joseph Skillen
Department: Music
Course: MUS 4223
Music students, while learning how to program, rehearse, and perform, held solo performances at Baton Rouge General to bring music and healing to people unable to leave the hospital due to medical treatment.   

 

Name: Susan Weinstein
Department: English
Course: ENGL 2027
Students partnered with an American Literature class at McKinley High School where both college and high school students learned about the connections between poetry and literature with modern hip hop music.

 

Name: John White
Department: Oceanography
Course: OCS 4001
LSU students learned about the function and value of wetland systems while presenting interactive and interesting presentations on wetlands at a local middle school.

 

Name: Kasey Windels
Department: Mass Communication
Course: MC 3036
Students studying qualitative research methods worked with the Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement to provide market research about a potential target audience of one of the Office’s initiatives.

 

Name: Birgitta Baker
Department: Kinesiology
Course: KIN 4501
Students in Birgitta Baker’s Health Promoting Interventions class partner with BREC to plan and implement the Playground KIDZ afterschool program. Students lead KIDZ participants in fun physical activities and assist with homework. 

 
Name: Jacqueline Bach
Department: Educational Policy, Theory, and Practice
Course: EDCI 3223
Students studying Adolescent Literature partner with area librarians to assist with adolescent programming, including facilitating book clubs, assisting with promotions, and creating displays.

 

Name: Jennifer Baumgartner
Department: Human Ecology
Course: HUEC 4382
Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education students learn about different family structures and challenges while developing a database of contact information and resources to assist the local Grandparents Raising Grandchildren organization in writing grants and providing services.

 

Name: Erin Coyle
Department: Mass Communication 
Course: MC 3080
Mass Media Law, a required course, partner students with an EBR middle school at which they will implement programming designed to combat cyber bullying.

Name: Laura Gentry
Department: Animal Sciences
Course: ANSC 2030
This Basic Horsemanship class partners with BREC’s Hearts and Hooves Riding Program to help organize and implement therapeutic horseback riding for people with disabilities. 

Name: Touria Khannous 
Department: Foreign Languages and International Studies 
Course: INT 2000
Students in this survey of World Issues class learn about community issues and solutions by working with BREC’s Playground KIDZ to combat childhood obesity through nutritious meals and physical activity. Playground KIDZ is a no-cost afterschool program offered at parks in low-income areas of Baton Rouge. 

Name: Younghee Lim
Department: Social Work
Course: SW 7504
This Advanced Social Policy class involves students in an advocacy project regarding predatory lending. 

 

Name: Michael Martin
Department: Mechanical Engineering 
Course: ME 4943
Students in this Space Systems class develop activities and presentations for EBR students. The university students use examples from spacecraft design to supplement topics that EBR students are studying in their science classes. 

 

Name: Jennifer Ritchie
Department: Animal Sciences 
Course: ANSC 4900
This Companion Animals in Society course worked with LSU Tiger HATS (Human Animal Therapy Service) which coordinates an animal-assisted therapy program at local medical and long-term care facilities. 

Name: John Scalzo
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Course: EE 4810
John Scalzo’s senior design and capstone course offered a service-learning component, with student teams having the opportunity to work with a local high school to develop, create and present an engineering design. 

 

Name: Philip Stouffer
Department: Renewable Natural Resources
Course: RNR 3108
Philip Stouffer’s Ecology and Management of Louisiana Wildlife class conducted a wildlife inventory for a BREC park.

 

Name: Sarah J. Bartolome
Department: Music Education
Course: MUED 2045
Students in MUED 2045 assisted teachers at Southdowns Preschool Center and introduced music instruction to children. 

 

Name: Sarah Becker
Department: Sociology/Women's and Gender Studies
Course: WGS 3150
Students worked alongside local residents of all ages in a South Baton Rouge neighborhood to build and maintain a new garden and to create a cookbook for The South Garden Project.

Name: Dorin Boldor
Department: Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Course: BE 4303
Students designed, developed, and presented teaching modules related to engineering properties of biological materials to be used in K-12 science education. Students worked with fourth and fifth graders at an area school. 

 

Name: Wanda Hargroder
Department: Kinesiology
Course: KIN 2540
Through partnerships with Southdowns Elementary School, Baton Rouge Parks and Recreation Department (BREC); and Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) students participate, plan, and implement recreational programming for the disabled population spanning an age differential from preschool to adults.

 

Name: Dana Hollie
Department: Accounting
Course: ACCT 3021
The class partners with Junior Achievement (JA) throughout the semester to assist with JA Finance Park Middle Grade Program, which helps students build a foundation for making intelligent, lifelong, personal financial decisions through hands-on, realistic site-based experiences. 

 

Name: Jennifer Jolly
Department: ETPP
Course: EDCI 3127
Students design units of study for the Louisiana State Museum based on the content presented in its exhibits. This class supports the museum’s on-going efforts to provide supplemental materials to teachers who use the museum as a learning tool.

Name: Jeffrey A. Nunn
Department: Geology and Geophysics
Course: GEOG 1002
Honors geology students develop and present age-appropriate materials and activities for learning about geological concepts while working with elementary school children in the East Baton Rouge public school system. 

 

Name: John Andrew Nyman
Department: School of Renewable Natural Resources
Course: RNR 3108
Case Studies in Habitat Restoration class will evaluate the effectiveness of a currently unmonitored wetland restoration project constructed by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. 

 

Name: Michael Pasquier
Department: Philosophy and Religious Studies
Course: REL 4010
In partnership with a local museum, students conduct archival and ethnographic research on the religious lives of African Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the development of museum guides and exhibits suitable for public audiences.

 

Name: Margaret Reams
Department: Environmental Sciences
Course: ENVS 7041
Students work with grass roots environmental advocacy groups to produce community guides for residents and public decision makers on how to establish local chapters. The overall objective is to facilitate effective educational outreach for the creation of local chapters of environmental groups throughout Louisiana. 

 

Name: Yejun Wu
Department: School of Library and Information Science
Course: LIS 7008
Students develop websites for community partners. Partners are involved in website creation from the very beginning and technology used will be based on community needs. Partners are asked to provide feedback throughout the design.

 

Name: Letti Lowe-Ardoin 
Department: Accounting
Course: ACCT 3321
Students work at the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to provide free tax help to low- to moderate-income people. 

 

Name: Cassandra D. Chaney 
Department: Human Ecology 
Course: HUEC 4064 
Students provide assistance at a local homeless shelter, dining hall, and thrift store and examine different sources from where individuals experience a stress response: environment, social, physiology, and individual thoughts/perceptions. 

 

Name: Rachel A. Dowty 
Department: Stephenson Disaster Management Institute 
Course: DSM 2010
Students examine emergency management history, organization, terminology, resources, facilities, and agency responsibilities. To help serve their local community and to learn the practical realities of emergency planning, students in this course re-design an emergency plan for a local non-profit organization.

 

Name: Nick Erickson 
Department: Theatre 
Course: THTR 4029
Student work with special needs children and help with behavioral and communication skills necessary for effective social functioning. They will take what they learn working with the children and integrate it into character development, movement options and story ideas for the class project. 

 

Name: Melanie Gall 
Department: Stephenson Disaster Management Institute 
Course: ENVS 4262
Students research the impact of potential environmental hazards, determine associated vulnerabilities, and estimate possible consequences for the LSU community and campus. Their findings are presented to the LSU Public Safety department to assist in the process of hazard mitigation planning.

 

Name: Dee Jacobsen 
Department: Kinesiology 
Course: KIN 4517
In Kin 4517, sports administration students assist with organizing, publicizing, recruiting volunteers, preparing for and implementing events at the Louisiana Senior Olympics Games. 

 

Name: Sukhamay Kundu 
Department: Computer Science 
Course: CSC 4330
Class projects involve developing web-based information systems and databases for community partners.

 

Name: Meghan S. Sanders 
Department: Mass Communication 
Course: MC 4001
Students utilize PR writing skills learned in this course to create essential PR pieces (i.e. press releases, fact sheets, public service announcements, etc.) based on the needs of a community partner. Students meet with partners, conduct research on the partners’ audiences, and create a comprehensive plan (i.e. objectives, strategies, tactics) for the partners. 

 

Name: Darius A. Spieth 
Department: Art History 
Course: ART 4420
Students will create exhibition displays summarizing “episodes” that explain how art can make invisible populations visible and how it can help cross social, ethnic, and religious boundaries that might exist in other fields of social interaction. The exhibition will be displayed at the local United Way offices where students will serve as community docents for the exhibition while it is on display. 

 

Name: Karen Sullivan 
Department: Biological Sciences 
Course: BIOL 3116
In Biology 3116, members of the class partner with elementary school science students to work together on projects for the school’s science fair. Students in Biology 3116 meet with their elementary school partners bi-weekly to help them develop their project idea, do the actual project, write a report, and prepare a display. 

 

Name: Cathleen C. Williams 
Department: Animal Sciences 
Course: AGRI 2900
Students study principles of leadership development and reflect on experiences planning and serving meals at local homeless shelters. 

 

Name: Jun Zou 
Department: Interior Design
Course: ID 3752
Students develop interior design projects for non-profits.

 

Name: Rita Culross
Department: Women’s and Gender Studies and Education
Course: WGS/ELRC 3600
Students learned leadership skills by raising money to support Dr. Marybeth Lima’s LSU Playground Project.

 

Name: Nicole Dahmen 
Department: Mass Communication 
Course: MC 2015, MC 4005
In MC 2015 and MC 4005, students develop public relations materials for non profits. 

 

Name: Amy Fannin
Department: Communication Studies
Course: CMST 2064
Students work with students at Belfair Elementary School as Reading Friends and Volunteers in Public Schools, helping second and third grade students read and conduct a book drive for Belfair Elementary.

 

Name: Fernando Galvez
Department: Biological Sciences
Course: BIOL 4800
As an option, some students provide demonstrations for Ocean Commotion; Spring 2009, fully implemented. All students will engage members of the community in meaningful and purposeful discussions of the effects of environmental disturbances on animal function. 

 

Name: Li Li
Department: Kinesiology
Course: KIN 3514
Students provide exercise interventions with elderly citizens with physical challenges.

 

Name: Alecia Long
Department: History
Course: HIST 3119
Students will provide assistance to a local agency that serves women’s needs. 

 

Name: Elaine Maccio
Department: Social Work
Course: SW 7807
Students will conduct research on availability of social services for a local non-profit group.  

 

Name: Andrea Morris
Department: Foreign Languages and Literatures
Course: SPAN 2156
Students provide mentoring and tutoring for Spanish-speaking high school students.

 

Name: Janet Norris
Department: Communication Sciences and Disorders
Course: COMD 4382
Students will provide interventions and tutoring in reading for students at a local elementary school.

 

Name: Charles Pecquet
Department: Construction Management 
Course: CM 1010
Students will work with Habitat for Humanity to construct homes for families.

 

Name: Lawrence Rouse
Department: Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Course: OCS 2009, HNRS 2000
In OCS 2009, Students will make presentations or demonstrations that illustrate coastal or oceanographic principles relevant to Louisiana for Louisiana Sea Grant. In HNRS 2000, students will conduct interviews of students, staff, and faculty about their experience during hurricanes Katrina/Rita, analyze data and prepare report fort. LSU administration and student government to be used for planning for future disasters. 

Name: Danny Shipka
Department: Mass Communication 
Course: MC 3010
Students will write public relations materials for non-profits. 

 

Name: Mark Weaver 
Department: Management
Course: MGT 4100, MGT 3120 
In MGT 4100, students are assisting in plans for an Internet Café/Lounge at an area high school, developing a template/plan for a “School Store” that meets students’ needs and state guidelines, and a plan to create a “diversity” council patterned after the National Association for Christians and Jews. In MGT 3120, students provide management entrepreneurial consultations for non-profits. 

 

Name: Frank Anselmo
Department: French Studies/Honors College
Course: HNRS 2013
Students will be paired with a World War II veteran who presently resides in Baton Rouge, will regularly meet with this veteran over the course of the semester, and will interview the veteran about his (or her, in some cases) war experiences. Upon completion of the interview process, the student will then write an account of the veteran's experiences. This written account will be delivered to all the veterans at the end of the semester at a public reception for the students and veterans and their friends and family. Furthermore, in order to ensure regular public access to the veterans individual stories,the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, which will conserve recorded portions of the interviews for public consultation. 

 

Name: David Brown
Department: Biology
Course: BIOL 4254
Students will develop and initiate a biological inventory program for BREC, the East Baton Rouge Parish recreation department. This is applied research because it addresses a specific land management need of BREC. Students will present study design proposals to BREC and then implement a single, refined protocol to gather baseline data, which will be delivered to BREC at the end of the semester. In later semesters, students will re-sample at the study sites initiated, beginning a long-term database that BREC will use to monitor their natural resources, plan management activities, and develop interpretive materials. 

Name: Cynthia DiCarlo
Department: Human Ecology
Course: HUEC 3383 
Students were placed in elementary schools for 12 hours each week. Prior to placement, faculty met with administrators and teachers at the school sites to review the student requirements and projects they would be engaging in over the course of the semester. Teachers and administrators were asked to give input on how these types of projects could be adapted to benefit the school site. The student developed active learning skills by developing learning materials for use with children in their school placements and assessing the effectiveness of the materials and lessons. Students were required to problem solve under the supervision of their mentor teacher and faculty supervisor on how to modify lessons and materials in order to ensure that learning objectives were met.

Name: Lisa Lundy
Department: Mass Communication
Course: MC 4005
Students will develop public relations campaigns for non-profits.

 

Name: Solimar Otero
Department: English
Course: ENGL 2423/ANTH 2423
Students in this section of ANTH/ENGL 2423 will have the opportunity to observe performances in the making and act as creative directors for teens preparing for Baton Rouge’s annual Slam Poetry festival held in May. Students will be helping to coach teens in writing and performing poetry, as well as help in producing the annual slam on site. 

 

Name: Mark J. Schafer
Department: Sociology
Course: SOCL 4431
Students read with students in public schools while learning about educational issues. 

 

Name: Amanda LaFleur 
Department: Foreign Languages and Literatures
Course: FREN 3295: Special Topics in Louisiana French
LaFleur's advanced language students will learn the major features of Louisiana French and apply their newly acquired knowledge, conducting oral interviews with community partners--fluent Louisiana French speakers--most of whom are senior citizens. The primary goal of these interviews is to document authentic speech of this endangered Cajun dialect while collecting narratives, either personal or folkloric, that will provide understanding of the culture that frames them. Students will transcribe the narratives and prepare multimedia documents for the T. Harry Williams Oral History collection and for their partners. This project involves a true partnership between the students, who possess writing skills in French but little a priori knowledge of the dialect, and the senior speakers, who possess a wealth of knowledge and fluency in Cajun French but typically are not literate in French. 

 

Name: Robert Perlis
Department: Mathematics
Course: MATH 1100: The Nature of Mathematics 
The primary goal of this large enrollment general education math course is to engender a sense of the value and "do-ability" of mathematical thinking. In cooperation with Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS), Perlis' students will tutor fifth graders. The first year will serve as a pilot for future semesters. Math 1100 students will be screened to ensure that they have the requisite skills and then will attend a mandatory preparatory session by VIPS. The students will then reflect on their tutoring experiences and write mid-term and final reports. The service-learning component of this course will help students take ownership of mathematics, help them make the transition from reluctant learners to enthusiastic mentors, and help them develop a sense of professional responsibility to their community. 

 

Name: Margo Abadie 
Department: School of Social Work
Course: SW 4070
Margo Abadie, associate professor in the School of Social Work, offers a unique course where students look at the physical and mental healthcare strategies in the Central American country of Belize as compared to those in the U.S. The central issue of the course is HIV/AIDS, a major public health problem in Belize which has implications for both healthcare and mental healthcare. Abadie, assisted by Regina Praetorius, will take SW 4070 students to Belize where they will mentor high school students and work with school teachers and other community members and, in the process, apply critical thinking skills to gain an understanding and appreciation of human diversity and its impact on healthcare delivery policies and strategies. 

Name: Jinx Broussard 
Department: Manship School of Mass Communication
Course: MC 4001
Jinx Broussard’s MC 4001 Public Relations Writing students will fulfill a community need by producing professional quality public relations materials for three local nonprofit organizations that assist underserved populations or address community problems such as domestic violence and child abuse. Broussard’s students will develop proficiency in public relations writing and critical thinking skills that will enable them to meet real client and audience needs. The materials produced in her class will also become part of the students’ professional portfolio that will be of interest to professional employers. 

 

Name: Robert Grayson 
Department: School of Music
Course: MUS 4241-3
Through the LSU Outreach Opera Program (LOOP), students of Robert Grayson, professor in the School of Music, will offer East Baton Rouge Parish public elementary and middle school students an invaluable exposure to opera while gaining necessary performing experience themselves. Grayson will be assisted by graduate student Wendy Neikirk. Students in Grayson’s class will design and participate in interactive multi-visit opera performances in four East Baton Rouge Parish schools, in education workshops for teachers, and in the creation of a teacher study guide for use in elementary and middle school classrooms. 

 

Name: Leon Steele 
Department: Interior Design
Course: ID 3752
Leon Steele, assistant professor of Interior Design, and his Interior Design 3752 students will work with the Musée Rosette Rochon in New Orleans in a project that involves historic preservation, women’s history, and Creole and Black architectural and interior design histories. Their work will assist in the restoration and development of the only Creole house museum in New Orleans, which is not yet open to the public. Rosette Rochon, a free woman of color, was a successful businesswoman whose colorful life story includes experiencing the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Her last surviving house is architecturally significant. The Rochon project builds on previous educational experiences in sophomore design studios, architectural history, interior design history, and art and art history. Steele’s students will create virtual models with period furnishings, finishes, and architectural details, and hand-renderings of the site. 

 

Name: Priscilla Allen 
Department: Social Work 
Course: SW 7506
The graduate students in Community and Agency Context for Direct Practice will be responsible for collecting and organizing existing oral history materials (recordings, documents, photographs) and coordinating a display to be housed at the new Carver Library. This display will return the McKinley oral histories to the Baton Rouge community. As a result, all will have access to the voices of past and present heroes of McKinley High School. This semester-long project will explore ethics related to issues of social justice and to intervention and skills necessary for social work. 

 

Name: Jane Brody 
Department: Theater
Course: THTR 3025
LSU students will take a dress rehearsal and final performance of selected monologues of Shakespeare’s plays to Lee High School. LSU students will engage the secondary students interactively through acting exercises. After introducing the elements of rhythm, sound and imagery, the LSU acting students will perform the monologues and conduct a workshop with the Lee High students, who will serve as a critical audience of the dress rehearsal. The final performance of the monologues will also include an opportunity for discussion between the secondary and college students of the technical elements of the performance and quality of the acting. 

 

Name: Judy Myhand 
Department: Human Ecology
Course: HUEC 2014
Students will develop and test quick, easy and healthful recipes. These recipes will be prepared, tested and evaluated in a laboratory setting. Then using the information learned, students will prepare flyers that include the recipes and nutritional information to be used by individuals served by the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. 

Name: Jean Witherow 
Department: English
Course: ENGL 2025
This Introduction to Fiction will focus on Louisiana and use oral histories previously collected by McKinley High School over a five-year period. For their final project, LSU students will produce a portable interactive display of the oral histories to remain at McKinley and to share with the larger community. One goal of the course is to enable students to better connect to the history of Louisiana through the selections read in class and from the rich history of a local community found in the oral histories. McKinley High School social studies students will work with the LSU fiction students in shaping the final display for the community.

 

Name: Lori Boyer 
Department: Mass Communications
Course: MC 4001
Students in a public relations writing course will create content for two newsletters that will serve the Old South Baton Rouge community. The students also will provide information for a Web site that will serve the community. Without this vehicle for communication, the residents, businesses, churches and other organizations in the community will not have a means to communicate with each other. This is a resource that the community needs. It also is an opportunity for students to develop interviewing, writing, and editing skills. In addition, students will learn to be sensitive to a client’s needs. 

 

Name: Garnet Branch  
Department: English 
Course: ENGL 2123
English 2123, Culture: Food and Literature is a General Education course taken in place of English 2025, Fiction. Four of the course goals are the following:
To increase students’ awareness of poverty in their own community;
To demonstrate that hunger is an economic issue and shows no respect for race or gender;
To explore how social and economic conditions impact the production and interpretation of literature;
To help students understand more fully the motivation of literary characters.
Partners: Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank & St Vincent de Paul 

Name: Renita Coleman  
Department: Mass Communications
Course: MC 2015
Students in a visual communication class will take photographs, design, and produce two newsletters and a new or redesigned web site each semester for the Old South Baton Rouge community and the Community University Partnership (CUP) program. CUP is a non-profit organization dedicated to redevelopment of this primarily low-income population. The newsletters and web site are the primary means the people of this community and program have of communicating with each other. Students will acquire computer program skills, develop critical thinking skills about how messages can best be communicated using visual elements, and gain valuable understanding of the heritage and perspective of people who have different education levels, income, religion, and cultural experiences. 

 

Name: Linda Hooper-Bui 
Department: Entomology
Course: ENTM 2001
Traditionally, the focus of this course was an individual insect collection, eventually discarded by the instructor. The old course project objectives taught students collection, curation, and identification of Louisiana's diverse insects. Incorporation of service learning into Entomology 2001 will change the paradigm of the course and give more meaning, purpose, and permanency to this exercise. Implementation of group collections focusing on insect diversity at BREC Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center in Baton Rouge will replace the individual insect collections and provide a permanent display for the Nature Center. Not only will the old objectives be accomplished, but now new skills will be incorporated such as communication, camaraderie, leadership, and civic responsibility. The new project will result in a permanent educational insect display for visitors and staff at the Nature Center.

 

Name: Carl Motsenbocker 
Department: Horticulture
Course: HORT 4050
LSU service-learning students will be assisting elementary school teachers (working with East Baton Rouge Parish Master Gardeners) in the implementation of a formal garden curriculum (Junior Master Gardener Program (JMG)) in schools in East Baton Rouge Parish.  The school sites will be using garden plots as well as indoor classroom exercises following the JMG curriculum schedule. 

 

Name: Margaret Parker  
Department: Foreign Languages and Literatures
Course: SPAN 2156
The course is designed to develop oral communicative competence in Spanish through interaction with teachers and students in an elementary school Spanish immersion program and subsequent discussion of that experience.  As a service to the school Spanish 2156-1 students will work with younger students in their study of math, science, and social studies taught in Spanish. This experience will provide material for conversational practice.

Name: Terri Poehl 
Department: Curriculum and Instruction 
Course: EDCI 4465
The purpose of including a service-learning component to EDCI 4465, a course completed by education majors prior to student teaching, is two-fold. Many prospective teacher candidates lack necessary experience in public schools. Service-learning in the planned community partners (LSYou, Glen Oaks High School, and Istrouma High School) will allow the candidates to view various teaching methods employed in public education classrooms. Many of the weaknesses occur in mathematics achievement on Louisiana’s high-states test. Wanting to minimize the weakness through a minimum of twelve hours of individual tutoring is the second purpose of the proposal. 

 

Name: Maud Walsh  
Department: Agronomy
Course: ENVS/EMS 4010 Applied Ecology
Applied ecology is the use of our knowledge of the interactions among living and non-living ecosystem components to prevent, alleviate, or solve problems in ecosystems. Students in Applied Ecology (EMS 4010) will perform service related to coastal restoration or to resource conservation through composting. Some of the applied ecology students will work with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the LSU AgCenter to introduce plant species to help stabilize the coastline and the salt marsh ecosystem. Other students will design a composting demonstration in collaboration with the East Baton Rouge Recycling Office and the LSU AgCenter Callegari Environmental Center. Students will present the demonstration at a variety of venues, including K-12 science teacher workshops, the East Baton Rouge Recycling Day fall forum, and middle-school science classes in East Baton Rouge public schools. 

 

Name: Laura Wolfe  
Department: Management
Course: MGT 4322
Employee Selection and Placement will require students to conduct a task based job analysis and then based on the data collected, write a job description and develop a structured selection interview. Work will be done for a non-profit organization in the Baton Rouge area with an identified need through Volunteer Baton Rouge!. This project fulfills one of the course objectives: “to introduce the student to employee selection and placement issues including development and validation of selection procedures.” Students will benefit by doing this project for a “real” organization and gain the satisfaction of serving the Baton Rouge community. Many of the students in this course are graduating seniors and this experience will serve them well during their job search. The “deliverables” of the course for the organization will be a well-done job analysis, job description, and structured selection interview, all of which should enhance their employment practices.

 

Name: Edith H. Babin
Department: English
Course: ENGL 2001
This section of English 2001 (Advanced Composition) will partner students who are working toward a degree in psychology and who have interests in aging studies with residents of St. James Place Continuing Care Retirement Community. The residents are interested in preserving a record of their past and will benefit both from the contact with young people and from retrieving their memories. To prepare to interview these seniors and write their stories, students will explore ethical issues of writing about people’s lives and the conventions of oral history and biography, discuss short stories that examine the aging process, and learn to write for different audiences and purposes. Exit questionnaires, conferences, and reflective essays will assess how well the class met learning goals. Grades will be based on how well students’ journals, mid-term drafts, and final projects meet articulated criteria.

 

Name: Marsha Cuddeback and Frank Bosworth
Department: School of Architecture and College of Design
Course: ARCH 4221 
This intensive community planning course will augment the service-learning courses already offered in the School of Architecture and is designed to provide an individualized experience for both students and community partners. Service-learning will be fully integrated into the course activities, outcomes, and final evaluation. Service-learning will be the vehicle for achieving academic goals. The work of this course will be a continuation of our community partnership initiated in the fall for ARCH 4001. Students will be working in Morehouse Parish, which is located in the Mississippi Delta Region, an area where communities have difficulty developing resources for planning. Our community partner is Bastrop Main Street. Students will be working with representatives from Bastrop Main Street, Bastrop Historic District Commission, city residents, and the city of Bastrop to develop a strategy for adaptive reuse of a currently abandoned junior high school located in the city’s historic district. 

 

Name: Jan M. Hondzinski  
Department: Kinesiology
Course: KIN 3517
This course will have undergraduate students research, plan, and present a fact-and-activity session, interactive in nature with children in the local schools. Although the students will disseminate information regarding nervous system control and protection, the project is designed for the students to better assimilate the information obtained from the Neuromotor Control of Human Movement class, to better prepare for their chosen careers, and to acquire a sense of the importance of community involvement. For the community of local school children, these presentations will include a short introduction to the brain, spinal cord and/or nerves and involve activities that help explain neural control of the human body. The presentations will fill a void in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System teaching materials used to prepare students for standardized exams. Hopefully, the learning outcomes for the students and children will foster many forms of information sharing, including peer-to-peer interaction.

 

Name: Denise Kay Jacobs 
Department: English
Course: ENGL 1001
This composition class will provide service to an ELOP (English Language Orientation Program) class by interacting socially during and outside of class over the first eight weeks of the semester before organizing, analyzing, and reflecting upon their guided experiences and informal writings in the form of formal writing assignments the second half of the semester. One problem with freshmen writers is limited life experience; another is the inability to reflect critically upon those experiences. This class will help remedy those deficiencies by immersing freshmen in a real-world experience designed to provide “the in-depth knowledge that comes from having lived with a problem or set of circumstances over an extended period of time” (Zlotkowski 82). Simply put, it will provide students with something to think and write about. The benefit to the international learning community will be the counteraction of negative stereotypes students develop after spending months or years in the Baton Rouge community without establishing friendships with Americans. 

 

Name: Catherine Lemieux 
Department: Social Work
Course: SW 7801
This proposal describes how 45-60 students will enroll in a distance-education class in family violence and earn course credit for participating in service activities that will strengthen services to victims of domestic violence. Students will gather relevant information and use professional report-writing skills to synthesize information for use by Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Students will research the different populations that live in their community, find out whether these populations are accessing shelter and advocacy services, identify the barriers to accessing services (e.g., language, lack of information), and develop a plan of action for reaching underserved populations. 

Name: Thomas Shaw
Department: Information Systems and Decisions Science
Course: ISDS 4125
The projects in ISDS 4125 require each student team to develop an information system for a real client in the community. The system must be comprised of a database with a graphical user interface. Previously, the course failed to encourage consideration of the system’s impact on the larger community—it instead focuses on the skills, tools, and techniques used to perform the work. Redesigning the course into a service-learning course will help close this gap by encouraging systematic reflection and discussion about how the work of system developers affects others in organizations and the communities they serve. Requiring the application of concepts from this and previous courses to a realistic setting will greatly enhance the value of the course.

 

Name: Jill Howard Allor
Department: Curriculum and Instruction
Course: EDUC 2000
The primary goal of this course is to provide hands-on experience to introductory and advanced education students in facilitating literacy acquisition. The practical, authentic tutoring experience will assist introductory students as they choose a vocation. More advanced students will benefit because the experience will offer an opportunity to apply concepts already learned, which will make these concepts less abstract, more meaningful. A second goal of the course is to provide an important service to the community, Ti-GRRRR “Get Ready and Read, Read, Read” Tutoring. In research studies conducted over the past three years, Ti-GRRRR Tutoring has been shown to benefit local elementary schools both academically and socially. Funds will be used to continue this program and pay for instructional materials and local travel.

 

Name: Leigh Clemons 
Department: Theatre
Course: THTR 1021
The Honors section of Introduction to Theatre is designed to give students experience in reading, seeing and writing about plays, as well as to provide a glimpse into the many different jobs involved in the making of theatre. This learning process concludes with the creation of a “theatre event,” an original ten-minute performance piece written, directed, designed and performed by small groups of five or six students for their classmates. The service-learning component of this course will take the theatre event out of the college classroom and into the Baton Rouge community. It will teach students the fundamental components of theatrical production by having students create and perform an original piece based upon suggestions from and interactions with a chosen target audience: the students in an elementary school classroom. 

 

Name: Richard Condrey 
Department: Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Course: OCS 1007
This course will be a reformatted version of an existing General Education (GEd) Course that will integrate core course curricula with Academic Service-Learning (ASL) and all eight GEd outcomes. The ASL component has been integrated into community partner’s needs/expectations. The course has been designed to provide students a positive experience in learning, practicing, abstracting and teaching scientific concepts on oceans, environmental stewardship, and community involvement. ASL involves collaboration of instructor/community partner/students in planning construction, stocking, maintenance and focus group testing of living educational displays (and associated educational tools) of selected fish habitats. Reflective learning accomplished through explanation of ASL concepts, weekly journals, presentations eliciting discussion and written and oral responses to structured questions. Community partners: Baton Rouge Zoo’s l’Aquarium de Louisiane and Bluebonnet Swamp, both of BREC. Community partners are to be involved with planning/execution/student evaluation. Students must participate in all activities for course success. The instructor accompanies students on all field trips as aid to community partners. 

 

Name: Marsha R. Cuddeback and Frank M. Bosworth  
Department: School of Architecture and College of Design
Course: ARCH 4001
Community based activities within traditional design studio courses actively engage students in the learning process and require them to think and act in a systematic fashion to achieve academic objectives. Using community-based projects in the studio makes education meaningful and relevant. Architecture 4001 is a 6-credit design studio in which students work independently and in teams to advance their architectural design skills with a focus on community planning. Students must interact with community members and interpret their responses. Although the hypothetical setting frequently provides the basis for these learning activities, more effective learning occurs in real-life settings, so the Service-Learning version is ideal. In this course students will be working with two community organizations: Old Arabi Neighborhood Association and MidCity Redevelopment Alliance, and Sweet Olive Cemetery, Incorporated. Students will assist community members in developing a strategic vision, prepare a preliminary development plan based on the strategic vision, and prepare a web site for each community organization to facilitate community involvement and communication. 

 

Name: Cheryl Hedlund 
Department: Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Course: VMED 5457
The goal of this outreach program is to enhance the veterinary practice by offering a problem solving service to practicing veterinarians which will provide them continuing education, improved patient care, and practical self-directed learning for veterinary students. Students will contact a practicing veterinarian and ask if there is a problem they have encountered with a surgical case or procedure that the student could research and help the veterinarian solve. The student will present the problem to their mentor for approval and guidance, research the problem and write a solution with appropriate references. Problems and solutions will be presented and discussed with classmates and their mentor, advice for improvement is given, revisions made and solution is forwarded to the veterinarian. Problems will be posted on the School of Veterinary Medicine web site for other veterinarians and students to review. Students will prepare a reflection by answering questions about the experience. Student performance will be evaluated on effort, originality, thoroughness and punctuality. 

 

Name: Laura Hensley 
Department: Educational Leadership, Research, and Counseling
Course: ELRC 7330
ELRC 7330, Group Techniques and Dynamics in Counseling, is a course designed for School and Community counseling students to attain both knowledge and skills in group leadership. The service-learning project includes a collaborative effort with Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana (PCAL), a statewide organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. PCAL has recently identified a need for support groups for adult survivors of childhood abuse. Due to a shortage of staff and funding, PCAL needs assistance in designing and implementing such support groups. In response to this need, students enrolled in the group course will design, advertise, coordinate and facilitate a community-based support group for survivors of childhood abuse as part of course requirements. Students will reflect upon these experiences both in writing and through group discussions. The project will be evaluated throughout the semester to assess its effectiveness in enhancing learning and in promoting student professional development. 

 

Name: Andrea Houston  
Department: ISDS
Course: ISDS 4125
ISDS 4125, the capstone course for ISDS majors (predominantly seniors), requires student teams (3-5 students) to design, code, test, document and implement a software development project. All projects must include a graphical user interface (typically Visual Basic), a database (typically Access), reporting capabilities (typically Crystal Reports) and documentation. The Office of Telecommunications (OTC) at LSU was the spring 2001 client and it was VOA (Volunteers of America) in Baton Rouge in fall 2001. VOA was a more successful client because students could relate to their issues, challenges and problems better than with the OTC project. In both cases a software application was developed for the client, for OTC it was to track jack ids and coordinate that information with existing software, for VOA it was to develop a resident tracking and information system for residents that live in VOA group homes (for developmentally disabled adults). 

 

Name: Stephanie Johnson 
Department: LSU School of Veterinary Medicine
Course: VMED 5010
The essential purpose of “Veterinarians in the Community” is to bring together children and veterinary student instructors for the purpose of nurturing children’s understanding of the interdependence of people and animals. Through teaching experiences in the elementary and middle school setting, veterinary students will promote community awareness of responsible pet ownership, bite prevention, the human animal bond, and conservation as well as other important topics. Through these experiences, the veterinary students will learn about their vital role as educators within the community and increase interpersonal and communication skills. The veterinary students will also be introduced to the importance of their “involvement” in the community both currently and in their future professional careers. The elementary and middle school students will gain a better understanding of responsible pet ownership as well as benefit from their exposure to role models. 

 

Name: Jennifer Jones 
Department: Theatre/Women’s and Gender Studies
Course: WGS 2500
The purpose of this course was to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies. We examined the cultural construction of gender roles, and examined the similarities and differences of gender roles within and between cultures and generations. We also identified historical and contemporary structures that limit women’s participation in society, as well as the strategies to overcome those limits. The service learning option for WGS 2500 gave students the opportunity to work with elderly residents at assisted living facilities and nursing homes in Baton Rouge. Each student committed to 10 visits (at least one hour in length) with a resident at Sterling Manor (individual meetings with a resident) or at Ollie Steele Burden Manor ( weekly small group reminiscence sessions). Over the course of the semester students were able to discuss many of the issues we talked about in class with their community partner.

 

Name: Stephanie H. Kurtz  
Department: Mathematics
Course: MATH 1202; MATH 1100
The main purpose of this project is to encourage the communication of mathematics, particularly by elementary education majors. Beginning in the fall, students enrolled in all sections of Math 1202 (geometry/measurement) will be offered service-learning as one of two options for a required project. The two sections of Math 1100 restricted to elementary education majors will be added in the spring. Students in these classes will be asked to tutor math at local public elementary schools. A minimum of five site visits will be required. Our students will gain hands-on insight into content presentation and communication. They will be asked to reflect on their experiences in journals and discussions and also relate these experiences to concepts presented in class. Students and teachers at the elementary schools will greatly benefit from the availability of extra tutors for general tutoring and/or projects. 

 

Name: Laura Lawson
Department: School of Landscape Architecture 
Course: LA 7352
This graduate studio taught site planning in the context of community design.  The goal for the class was to develop workable solutions to site planning problems in “real world” contexts of a senior living facility and four Baton Rouge schools.  In addition to the technical information and methods that had to be taught, the course was run as if it was a community-design office.  Students worked in groups and were asked to take responsibility for certain aspects of the process. By coordinating the class projects with Baton Rouge Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance, we intended to have more sustained impact.  While our course was only one semester, BREADA will continue to work with the institutions in order to build and sustain the projects.

 

Name: Yiping Lou 
Department: Educational Leadership, Research, and Counseling
Course: ELRC 7509
ELRC 7509 Authoring Systems for Educators is a required course for students in the Educational Technology Graduate Program and an elective course for students in the Technology Literacy Certificate Program. The primary goal of this course is for students in educational technology or any other interested students to acquire skills in using authoring tools as well as instructional design principles to create effective instructional materials to meet specific instructional needs. In the Fall 2001 semester, a service-learning project was designed and implemented in the course in order to provide students with a more authentic learning environment with tangible benefits for the community. In the project, the graduate students worked individually or in small groups with a classroom teacher to create an instructional class Web site that would meet the specific needs of the class. 

 

Name: Carol E. O’Neil
Department: Human Ecology
Course: HUEC 3016
All Human Ecology (HUEC) 3016 (Community Nutrition) students (n=19) were required to participate in one of two service learning opportunities (1S02).  The first was teaching in Project GUMBO program (Getting United to Make Better Opportunities).  Thirteen students participated in the GUMBO program.  In this program, which was designed to train food-bank eligible people for entry level jobs in food service, students taught the segments of the program related to kitchen safety, food service equipment identification and use, nutrition, weights and measures, food label reading, and recipe modification.  In the second program, six 3016 students conducted the annual in-service training for Volunteers of America’s (VOA) group home leaders.  In this training program, students taught food safety, nutrition, and diet modification for diabetic and heart healthy diets.  In each teaching opportunity, students conducted programs lasted 40-90 minutes and used a variety of teaching techniques including: lecture, demonstrations, and games.