Engagement in practice: Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem

Abstract

Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem (BCe2) is a partnership that pilots community-engaged, sustainable projects to address real world challenges in the Southeast neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana, a mid-size city in the Midwest. BCe2 is made up of a diverse group of students and faculty from area high schools and colleges, community groups, local businesses, and the City of South Bend through the Metro Lab Network (MLN) partnership. The Southeast Neighborhood is used as a sandbox of innovation to develop feasibility studies, designs, and prototypes for urban natural resource management, sustainable placemaking projects, and data-driven community development solutions. BCe2 operates under two driving goals: 1) to advance the theory and knowledge of educational environments that contribute to building and strengthening all levels of the high school to graduate school pipeline in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and 2) to develop a collaborative, sustainable community/institutional infrastructure to support transdisciplinary, authentic STEM learning opportunities for community impact. The team employs human-centered participatory design to address City pain points by following the design thinking process: 1. Empathize, 2. Define, 3. Ideate, 4. Prototype, and 5. Test. On every project, the team iterates with community and partner stakeholder input and adjusts project scope when necessary to be responsive to stakeholder needs. The BCe2 Summer 2016 Internship Program consisted of 22 interns from six of the area educational institutions addressing nine projects in the Southeast Neighborhood. The success from the summer is an accomplishment springboard to carry talent engaged in purpose of advancing "smart city where everyone can thrive" momentum forward. In 2017, BCe2 will build on its strong networked relationships and strategically advance its projects and programs done with the community for meaningful outcomes and transformational long term impact.