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.