| NSF Org: |
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 10, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 10, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1540301 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Edward Berger
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $454,065.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $454,065.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
712 BROADWAY ST S MENOMONIE WI US 54751-2458 (715)232-1123 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Menomonie WI US 54729-0790 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | EngEd-Engineering Education |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This project explores how engineering and technology students experience service learning during their undergraduate programs. One example of service learning is Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USA, which seeks to find practical solutions to community concerns, such as clean water or sustainable sewage systems. Many universities and colleges offer such experiences to their students and believe they are contributing a valuable service to developing communities. However, service learning projects are often compromised because students graduate, and/or faculty leaders move to other institutions, and community ties are lost. The project seeks to find best practices for university/college-based service learning for all stakeholders in these enterprises. This project is a collaboration between Engineers Without Borders USA and University of Wisconsin-Stout researchers, teachers, and students. The project will unfold over four years and includes both engineering and social science students in the work. Student attitudes, beliefs, and goals about community involvement are explored in a cross-institutional way: In addition to studying the UW-Stout EWB chapter, the project looks at data collected by Engineers Without Borders USA, and examines trends and practices throughout chapter projects.
A wider understanding of how to balance the needs of students and communities could be broadly applied to service learning projects outside of the STEM fields. More specifically, community development, economic development, and applied anthropology projects might benefit from this research. Finally, third party stake holders such as employers of STEM students are able to employ students who are better prepared to operate in the global workplace due to their participation in well-formed service learning opportunities. In summary, This work contributes to the development of an economically competitive STEM workforce by providing a guiding structure for effective and ethical service learning initiatives for STEM education. The overall project outcomes are disseminated publicly through a project website, traditional and lay publications and presentations, and the development and delivery of workshops. Further, project outcomes that specifically target the operation of EWB-USA projects are incorporated into the guidelines that are followed by EWB-USA's membership, which includes more than 14,000 individuals.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
- Faculty workload and tenure and promotion policies and expectations often do not account for the work of advising service-learning activities in such a way as to ensure effectiveness of these activities.
- While students are exposed to important learning opportunities through participation in service-learning activities, not all students are able to fully realize those opportunities for social, economic, and other reasons.
- The impacts of service-learning activities on participating communities is mixed. Students are often ill-equipped to handle complex social dynamics of their partner communities and this can exacerbate community conflicts and place increased pressure on existing community inequities.
- The effectiveness of service-learning activities in engineering is enhanced when there is access to a large pool of professional engineering mentors that can support project work and the university is able to provide support for long-term project sustainability.
- In an educational setting, simple exposure to the topics of engineering ethics, social justice, and social responsibility is insufficient to create a lasting influence on students’ perceptions of these issues. Instead it is necessary to develop a sustained, scaffolded approach to the coverage of these topics both within and without the core engineering curriculum.
- Students who entered engineering to “make a difference” and those from diverse backgrounds tended to be more receptive to the knowledge and experiences gained through engineering ethics, social justice, and social responsibility curriculum. Similarly, those students who chose engineering because it is marketed as a high-salary, in-demand career path, were less receptive and in fact sometimes challenged the importance of these areas to our understanding of the engineering practice.
Last Modified: 09/23/2020
Modified by: Elizabeth A Buchanan
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