More than a third of our faculty has included a community-based component in its courses and more than half of the student body has engaged in a community-based learning project.  Faculty across all disciplines engage their students in community-based learning.  Approximately 70 current faculty members have incorporated community-based learning into their courses.

Most courses offer a combination of community-based and traditional work.  Some offer students options from which to choose.  Community-based learning is a pedagogy rather than an activity in itself.  It may be a single class project, a group activity, or an individual assignment.  The best examples are closely integrated into academic study. 

2006-2007 examples of courses with community-based learning components:

• Ecopoetics, ES/ENG s36, Jonathan Skinner
  Five students worked on numerous community-engaged projects that helped them to connect their poetry to the natural world.  Projects included:  four days at Morse Mountain Farm along with artist-in-residence Julie Patton; hiking in the White Mountains; classes at Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary; kayaking on the Kennebec River; working on writing projects with Montello School students; and working with Lots to Gardens. The students wrote and published poetry books that reflected this immersion in the natural world.  The work is incorporated into the Green Horizons art exhibit at Olin Arts.
  
• Blood, Genes and American Culture, HI/WS 267, Rebecca Herzig
  Professor Herzig gave students in this course the option of doing “action projects” with a concrete product in lieu of a final paper.  Products were developed with communities outside of the classroom and publicly presented.  One group of students developed, implemented and presented a survey to determine barriers to college students donating blood.  Results were presented to the staff of the local American Red Cross. Other projects included: the production of a multimedia public art installation on campus titled, “What’s In Your Blood?”, a spoken-word/interpretive dance performance; and a mixed-media dynamic sculpture with the title of “BloodMobile.”
  
• Privilege, Power and Inequality, SOC 250, Emily Kane
  Professor Kane developed an innovative pedagogy through which to incorporate community-based research to address the three areas reflected in the course texts: privilege, power and inequality. Mellon Learning Associate Chris Carrick worked closely with some of the project groups. Most students engaged in what were called “community action projects.” Students were required to address course texts in community-based projects that were developed by them.  Three groups designed projects within the Bates community, two groups conducted community-based research related to housing and economic policy, and a third group worked on a community-based learning project with children in the community.
  
• Literacy in the Preschool and Early Elementary Years, EDUC 245, Anita Charles
  Students supported classroom literacy instruction as they learned about defining and teaching literacy in the early years, from emergent literacy in the home through elementary school.  In addition to traditional classroom placements, students worked on a range of literacy-related initiatives, among them: Book Reach, a Lewiston Public Library program designed to promote early literacy at local day care centers; the Montello Reading Club, an after-school, one-on-one reading program for second graders; an initiative to help Longley students improve their writing skills.
• Creating Educational Experiences at Morse Mountain, EDUC s20, Ed Zuis 
  Bates students designed and conducted rich experiential education modules at the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area for over 100 students from Union 44 schools.  Modules were provided to a variety of interested partners, including neighbors, partner-agency-representatives, and school partners concerned with the Conservation Area and experiential learning.
• Passion and Sustenance: On Crafting a Life, FYS 347, Anna Sims Bartel
  This course introduced students to theory of community, sustainability, work, and vocation, inviting them to craft together understandings of what it means to anchor work in human dignity and public purpose.  Students learned the tools of, and then conducted, introductory-level community-based research.  Placements included:  Empower Lewiston; Advocates for Children; Head Start; B-Street Health Clinic; and the Bates College Sophomore Year Initiative.  Students developed various products, such as a PowerPoint presentation delineating the purposes and missions of Empower Lewiston; a research report on community pathways to support for teen survivors of childhood sexual abuse; and a proposal for, along with the letter to the newspaper recommending, the creation of a Head Start alumni network for the purposes of fund-raising and increased collaboration.