Incorporating Service-Learning elements into your existing environmental education program will strengthen it because it will engage your student participants more actively in your projects. They will have the opportunity to gain academic knowledge about the particular environmental issue at your site, and then they will be able to take responsibility for devising a solution to the problem. This will empower the students and help them realize the power of their individual and summative actions.

According to the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), "environmental education aims for an effective, environmentally literate citizenry able to participate with creativity and responsibility in a democratic society. Environmental education often begins close to home, encouraging learners to understand and forge connections with their immediate surroundings. Whether working with adults or children, environmental education is learner-centered and provides participants with opportunities to construct their own understanding through hands-on, minds-on investigations. Engaged in direct experiences, learners are challened to use higher order thinking skills. Environmental education provides real-world contexts and issues from which conepts and skills can be learned." (NAAEE, Nonformal Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence, 2004, p. 4).

Completing a Service-Learning project at your site, while learning the academic content associated with the issue, enables students to become involved with their immediate surroundings, as described above, and empowers them to make informed decisions about issues affecting their communities and regions. When carefully implemented, Service Learning heightens participant experience and facilitates the "action" element of environmental education.

For information on research and evaluation of Service-Learning, go to Service-Learning Research.