Service Learning in the Geosciences: Resources to Engage Students in Projects Within their Community

While service-learning is emerging as one way to give undergraduate students hands-on opportunities, there have been few systematic efforts to examine how service-learning is being used in the geosciences and whether it has a positive impact on students. In addition, it is unclear how well research on service-learning programs in other disciplines has been leveraged to inform the design of geoscience service-learning programs. Service-Learning in Undergraduate Geosciences: A Workshop recently held in Washington DC, featured invited presentations and discussion on topics such as designing service-learning courses, assessing service-learning courses, research on service-learning, and providing training and support to faculty teaching service-learning courses. A summary of the presentations and discussions at the workshop will be published later in 2016.

Read more about the workshop in this AGU Blogosphere post by Laura Guertin: Day 2 AM – Service Learning in Undergraduate Geosciences: A Workshop. Commissioned papers, workforce links, and relevant reports can be found on the workshop's Additional Resources webpage. The Science Education Resource Center also provides additional resources for teaching as well as opportunities to join the discussion on Teaching Service Learning in the Geosciences.