An inner city high school government teacher in Los Angeles wanted to use one of the 5th Grade lessons from Adventures to clarify and reinforce the functions of the three branches of government with his students.

He decided that he could do this with high school students if he introduced the elementary lesson as an opportunity for his students to do a cross-age service-learning project with 5th graders.

CRF helped him connect with a nearby 5th grade class that was using Adventures. The high school students planned and practiced the lesson, then visited the 5th graders to present it.

The 12th graders came with an assessment activity and demonstrated how the 5th graders mastered the concepts. Several weeks later, the 5th graders did the Due Process unit from Adventures and asked their teacher if the high school students could come back to see their work.

Arrangements were made to bring the high school students back. The 5th graders presented their work and described (quite accurately!) due process protections to the 12th graders, who told their teacher that they learned quite a bit about the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the 5th Graders.

In addition to learning civic content from 12th graders, the younger students said that they were no longer in fear of going to the local high school, and parents shared with the teacher that they felt relief knowing that there were great teachers and caring students at the high school.

Since that time, the high school teacher has continued to arrange cross-age service-learning projects each year. (Over 38 languages are spoken at these schools, which are located in a high-crime, high-poverty area of downtown Los Angeles.)

These teachers, as well as teachers from schools in more affluent communities, continue to share that this curriculum helps them teach important concepts in a meaningful, fun way.