Learning By Doing Curricula Print

Dear Educator:

 

Our Scouts perform projects service to their greater community.  One of the ways they do this is by the  Learning By Doing Curricula.

The Scout Programs of Adventure Scouts USA are proud to introduce this new program for use within your school and with your students.  This is an exciting new opportunity created to enrich your students' knowledge in an age-appropriate format.  This curriculum is designed to function as either a stand-alone curriculum or as part of your existing curriculum. 

Our Learning By Doing Curricula  has two parts:  in-class curriculum, and a scheduled visit from professionals.  For example, we provide an Art Curriculum relevant to several subjects including History, Science, Math, and English.  The in-class curriculum can serve as a supplement to the class syllabus. 

 

We provide a curriculum that can be substituted for part of a class or all of it.  Individuals from your community, professionals in the field, visit your school for a day, enabling students to acquire knowledge of the subject through learning by doing. Our Learning By Doing Curricula is currently available on four subject matters:  art, home and auto improvement, financial education, and health and safety.  It has two parts:  a classroom portion to prepare and interest the students in the subject matter, and the actual visit by community professionals.

  

In the case of the Art Curriculum, after the students complete their classroom portion of the curriculum , a large number of artists from the community come into the school and lead learning by doing sessions, in which all the students take part.  One of the purposes of the classroom portion of the curriculum is to enable students to acquire new information and to interest and excite them about the coming visit.  They also begin to understand that education is comprehensive and all subjects are tied together and have more to do with each other than they may have previously thought.

 

Our Learning by Doing Curricula are offered to educators currently, with future plans to expand the program.  We have included a character related portion in every curriculum so students participating learn how character plays in a role in those subjects.  As a result, students acquire knowledge and raise their academic performance while learning how to deal with practical matters in their everyday lives in which character matters.

 

Our Scouts' Role

The Scout Programs of Adventure Scouts USA are the only fully nondiscriminatory Scout Programs in the United States.  We are an informal educational platform designed to enable our Scouts to have FUN while they acquire skills that will serve them lifelong.  

Our Scouts organize the entire event.  They contact local businesses to arrange donation of items necessary for the Learning By Doing Curricula, such as blank checkbooks for the Financial Curriculum and easels for the Art Curriculum.  On a county wide basis, our Scout arrange for the donations and for their delivery to schools in the community.  This gets local businesses involved in helping youth and helping schools, and helps our Scouts further develop attributes such as the skill of creative and critical thinking to get the job done.  Everyone benefits from the effort to serve youth.  

 

 

The Curricula   

 

We are proud to offer this program to your school and to your students.  Thank you for your help in the effort to build a better life for all of today’s youth.

 

 

Our curricula help schools meet equal opportunity and diversity objectives.  They also enhance cultural awareness, and supplement existing Science, English, Math, Social Studies, Art, and Health curricula.


We prefer each student work one on one with a professional.  How many professionals the Scouts invite depends upon how many professionals are in your community and the number of students at your school.  A school with 800 students in one grade level will clearly need to invite more professionals than a school with 100 students.  Though the visit is intended to go on for one day, alternatively a school could have the professionals come into the school for a few hours over several days. 

 

We recommend the students interact with the professionals on a scheduled basis.  For example, professionals could set up in the gym and each homeroom can be scheduled to attend the learning by doing session at a different time.  We also recommend that students are required to pick the type of professional they want to interact with and stick with their choice at the session.  It may too difficult to have large numbers of students milling around the gym from one person to another.

 


Below are some examples of different Learning By Doing Curricula which have been devloped:


Art


Local artists can come in to hold learning-by-doing sessions in which every youth can be a real artist!  Artists can cover types of art such as watercolors, pastels, drawing, as well as the business side of being an artist.  Artists which our Scouts may invite include oil painters, glass blowers, watercolor painters, makers of stained glass, etc.  


Finances


Bankers, stock brokers, insurance experts, and financial services experts can hold learning-by-doing sessions.  They can cover topics such as investing money, how to properly be a credit card user, how to balance a checkbook, etc. 


Home/Auto Care


Home builders, car experts, handymen, and more can present learning-by-doing sessions.  They can cover such topics as how to change the oil in car, how to buy a car, and basic car maintenance.  Subjects could also include basic home repairs, what is the accepted level for a thermostat in summer and winter, and more. 


Safety/Health


Local experts from government agencies could show youth how to pack an emergency bag in case of tornado, earthquake, flood, or hurricane.  Police and firefighters could take youth fingerprints and pictures for safety.  Details can be covered such as why it is smart to set a timer on your lights or put a deterrent, such as a large prickly bush, outside a child’s window.


Our Scouts


Our Scouts plan, organize, lead, and evaluate the Learning By Doing portion of the curricula only or they can be responsible for both organizing the classroom portion and the portion in which professionals from the community visit.  This is one of many programs our Scouts lead which is beneficial to them and their community.