E-luminate is a service-learning program in which U.S. schools create nonfiction, electronic books and materials that will be used at a brand new e-learning center constructed at a school in Uganda and Sierra Leone. It's an ideal way to incorporate service learning into your curriculum while also helping you meet your academic standards. What better way for your students to learn a subject than to teach about it through researching and designing educational materials for others?

Schools, organizations, and individuals can participate in E-luminate by registering for the program and learning about this year's spotlight school in Uganda and Sierra Leone. Using the participation fees from each school year, E-luminate will rennovate, construct, and equip an e-learning center at that school with electricity, a computer, a projector, and an audio system. In the meantime, U.S. students write, illustrate and design electronic books and materials that will then be used by that Ugandan and Sierra Leonean school. They also have the option of collecting financial donations for any of our 17 sister schools in Uganda and Sierra Leone. In exchange, teachers will receive instructional resources to help them facilitate the project and all schools will receive feedback from the Ugandan and Sierra Leonean school before the end of the school year.

E-luminate allows teachers to seamlessly incorporate service into practically any unit of any classroom at any level. Whether you teach reading or science, math or social studies, E-luminate is a great fit. Since the children at your sister school study many of the same subject areas that American students do, books with specific, accurate educational content can help provide instructional materials for their classrooms.

Over 50,000 students, teachers, parents and community members from over 1500 schools across the country have been involved in E-luminate. During the 2008-9 school year, we collected over 14,000 pounds of books and donated supplies.

1. To enhance literacy and learning abroad by creating educational infrastructure and materials for vulnerable children in countries where English proficiency is desirable and/or necessary for success.



2. To support literacy in U.S. schools by motivating students to read and write for an audience of their peers who will value their work.



3. To foster empathy and social responsibility in American students by providing an effective way for them to learn about and make a difference in the lives of children facing war, poverty, disease, and slavery around the world.

Anyone can participate as long as they are able to pay the participation fee, can create electronic materials, and can designate one contact person who checks email regularly. The majority of our participants are schools, but we also have student organizations, after school programs, neighborhood centers, home school students, church youth groups and Sunday school classes, university residence halls, special education classes, and a variety of other kinds of organizations involved in the program. Our participants range from first grade to university level students.

We have requests for tens of thousands of books in every subject area. In fact, we are greatly in need of math and science books, along with books in social studies, health science, physical education, music, English language literacy, and art. E-luminate allows you to integrate literacy into your curriculum, regardless of the subject you teach. You can see all the possible book topics here.

What better way for your students to learn about a topic than to write about it? Rather than writing an essay or solving problem sets, consider having your students write a short book for an eager audience! Your books can include puzzles, quizzes, simple science experiments, math problems (and answers!), glossaries, diagrams, activities, etc.