Home and Community
Building Community Web Pages
Lesson One
Organization Fair
- Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School
- Subject Area: Social Studies
Brief Description
Students begin their investigations of community organizations by creating brief profiles of local agencies. Students gather information about various community
organizations and present their findings to the class.
Objectives
Students will:
- Learn about various organizations in their community.
- Gain experience in
making professional contacts with organizations.
Materials and Resources
In developing our lessons and activities, we made some
assumptions about the hardware
and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the
LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or
activities have a computer
(PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and
monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or
dial-up
software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but
perhaps
Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special"
hardware
or software
requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above)
and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.
- Special
hardware requirements: None.
- Special software requirements: None.
- Internet access: None for this lesson.
Activity Description
- Have students create a profile of one community service
organization for a homework project. Students may conduct phone interviews or set up appointments to visit
the agency in person. Students should take written notes of their converstations and
obtain copies of any written materials the agency might have such as mission statements
and brochures. Each student should prepare a brief report that conveys the mission of the
organization and how the organization works to achieve its goals. Some examples of
organizations that students may profile are municipal police, fire, sanitation, and parks and
recreation departments, local charities, and social service organizations such as food
pantries, homeless shelters, and blood banks. For this project, students should focus
only on non-profit organizations.
- Students share their reports over the course of one or two
class periods, so that all members of the class hear about a wide array of
organizations and functions. Have the class discuss the ways these agencies shape
what happens in their community.
- Assign students to task forces and have them select an
organization to profile. Groups might have to negotiate if two or more groups would
like to profile the same organization.
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