Resources on Including Societal Issues in STEM Courses:

Resources from Workshop Participants:

• Mud Muck and Service Whitlow and Hoofnagle 2011
• NSF funded community-based STEM projects
• Realizing STEM Equity and Diversity

Publications and Reports:

• Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation National Academy of Science 2011.
• Assessing Underserved Student's Engagement in High-Impact Practices LEAP Report lead by Ashley Finlay and Tia McNair 2013.
• Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence AAC&U 2015
• A review of the literature on increasing the representation of women undergraduates in STEM disciplines through civic engagement pedagogies Knight, Mappen and Knight 2011
• Do differences make a difference?: The effects of diversity on learning, intergroup outcomes and civic engagement Holoien 2013.
• Can diversity in the undergraduate engineering population be enhanced through curricular change? Busch-Vishniac and Jarosz 2004

Resources from Programs at Other Institutions:

• Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) courses and programs strengthen student learning and interest in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics by connecting course topics to issues of critical local, national, and global importance.
• Activity collection for including environmental justice in the classroom from the InTeGrate STEP Center Activities Collection
• Activity collection from InTeGrate Coastal Hazards regional workshop Teaching collection
• Essay collection from faculty who use Environmental Justice teaching cases in their classroom.
• Information about using Societal Issues to attract diverse students to STEM courses.
• Strategies for designing and teaching introductory courses where service learning and societal issues might be most easily included to attract new students.
• Ideas for service learning as a pedagogical approach.
• More examples of service-learning teaching activities
  

Connecting to the world we live in Using real examples (at the local, national, and global scale), field work and contrasting narratives are 4 pedagogic approaches that strengthen the connection between the knowledge and skills learned in class and their application in life. This resource page describes how each method can be implemented at a variety of scales, environments, and disciplines; provide tips on how to incorporate sustainability topics into your course using these methods; and give links to resources that describe the method in more depth.

Service Learning - Connecting Classroom Learning with Societal Issues Service learning engages students in genuine problem-solving and brings their learning directly into their community. When emphasizing connections with societal challenges, service learning is a natural fit for students to forge working relationships with community partners and to embark on the complex, yet enriching, process of tackling real-world problems.

Teaching with Local Examples Local examples, including those on campus and in the surrounding community, often offer a rich collection of opportunities for students to apply their classroom knowledge to real world issues. Further, working in the local environment couples this applied knowledge with an opportunity to improve upon skills such as working with field equipment, critical thinking, and team work. The nature of working with local examples engages students since it builds on their sense of place and can help students make connections between what they learn and their everyday experiences.