Service Learning Courses Offered by Psychology Faculty
Service learning courses put students in the heart of the community as they work and learn alongside Omaha organizations.
PSYC 4630 and PSYC 8636 (non-psychology graduate students) Organizational Psychology
Dr. Mahima Saxena
Students work with local nonprofits to conduct organizational needs analysis and deliver outcomes relevant to effective organizational functioning and employee performance and well-being. Past partners have included TriFaith, DASH, and the Epilepsy Foundation of America. Students work in teams to interview full-time employees and deliver outcomes in the form of written reports and oral-video presentations. Class is fully online-asynchronous.
PSYC 4024 Learning Laboratory
Dr. Rosemary Strasser
For the project, students work with animals at a local shelter or rescue group, such as the Nebraska Humane Society. The purpose of the project is to enable students to apply operant and classical conditioning principles in a real-world setting to improve the behavior of animals awaiting adoption. Service learning activities usually take place during regularly scheduled class time. Transportation is generally not provided, but can be provided through an SLA if needed.
PSYC 4280 Animal Behavior Laboratory
Dr. Rosemary Strasser
For the project, students work with zookeepers and staff at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo or the Wildlife Safari Park. The purpose of the project is to enable students to use behavioral sampling techniques to address issues relevant to the zoo staff regarding the animals or their exhibits. Service learning activities usually take place during regularly scheduled class time, although they may also occur outside class time if needed by the research question. Transportation is generally not provided, but can be provided through an SLA if needed.
PSYC 3510 Educational Psychology
Dr. Jasmine Watkins
Service Learning is optional for this course. For students without a community partner, an approved alternative assignment is provided.
PSYC 4510 Psychology in the Schools
Dr. Brian McKevitt
Students work with children participating in the Boys and Girls Club afterschool program. Students lead small groups teaching social skills lessons about relationship building. The purpose of the project is to enable students to work directly with school-age children to apply course content related to how schools meet the social-emotional needs of students. All service learning activities take place during regularly scheduled class time, but on-site at the Westside Boys and Girls Club. Transportation is not provided. Students must complete a volunteer application form and a background check.
PSYC 4680 Positive Psychology, Health, and Wellbeing
Dr. Lisa Scherer
Students have completed different projects each semester, depending on the particular community partner’s needs and the course content area accentuated. Finding meaning and purpose in life and expanding one’s empathy and perspective by providing basic needs for unhoused people in the community were themes underlying projects with Youth Emergency Services, Together Inc., and St. Vincent de Paul’s Sack Lunch and Clothing Give Away Program. Flourishing through understanding and directing intentional behavior to enhance the 8 Dimensions of Wellness guided the partnership with students enrolled in a Physical Health and Wellness class at the Omaha Middle College. Students provided training and one-on-one coaching to the women residing at Carol’s House of Hope on understanding the 24 strengths of the VIA taxonomy and how to utilize their top strengths. Cross-cultural happiness and kindness were course themes underlying the students’ creations of “hygge” gift bags” for students utilizing the Maverick Pantry and through students practicing random acts of kindness at UNO and in the community. Empathy, kindness, meaning and positive health practices were the goals of the partnership with Carol’s House of Hope, where students solicited donations of children’s books, games and crafting material and created fun activities for the children living in the residence while their siblings were being treated at Children’s Hospital.
PSYC 4960.002 Independent Study in Psychology (.002 is Dr. Scherer’s section with Service Learning Component)
Dr. Lisa Scherer
This project combines hands-on research experience with a service learning component, which requires students to commit to fall and spring semesters to complete the project. Each year, students identify children’s read-aloud books representing 3 of the 24 character strengths from the Virtues in Action Strengths (VIA) taxonomy. Students work in teams to create learning materials that supplement each of the strengths represented in the books, followed by students reading the books to third-grade students at a local elementary school. Subsequent to the fall semester emphasis on the service learning component, the spring semester is focused on the research component of the project Students hone their measurement and statistical skills through the development of a strengths knowledge test and an analysis of the effectiveness of the read-aloud intervention. Students also acquire experience in presenting their research by each of the three teams of students creating a poster or delivering an oral presentation for their team’s strength at a conference.