Growing together with the community through service learning

Abstract

This work in progress (WIP) study provides the students with mindset of an engineer, serving the community. The Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and other engineering associations set the expectation of an engineer. Two of the eleven ABET Student Outcomes5 highlight on ethical responsibility of an engineer, and understanding the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context. ASCE also highlights on the well-being of our communities and consistently improving the quality of life of the general public4. IEEE emphasizes on engineers' responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health, and welfare of the public6. To meet the needs of the society and to train the engineering students with the importance of 'serving the community' we created a course called Service Learning. The students are expected to understand the importance of 'serving the community' and gain the perspective of improving the quality of life of the general public with their skill sets. The long term outcomes of the course are: 1) to be able to communicate and work with the general public as the ultimate recipients of our engineering goods; 2) to be able to transfer the knowledge to younger generations and to continue to produce professional engineers. Our curriculum includes the service learning requirement as a course for all of our engineering majors. This has been a successful class to provide the students with the mindset of an engineer, serving the community. The course also helped our college to be involved with local county affairs and helped surrounding elementary schools to high schools with many Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) activities.