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A semester-long group project implementing service-learning was designed and executed in the first semester of a two-semester-long biochemistry lecture sequence. The project required students to partner with the local public library to design and implement an interactive demonstration, either in person or in virtual format, for young children who visited the library. The activity topic was assigned on the basis of one of the following major building blocks of biochemistry: amino acids, nucleotides, lipids, or monosaccharides. Students were required to visit the library or the library’s Web site on multiple occasions and complete journal entries throughout the semester before turning in a final project. Each group turned in a completed proposal to the instructor and to the public library detailing the purpose of the activity, the materials needed (for both the instructor and the library patrons), the structure of the interactive demonstration, and a take-home handout for the children. In the case of the virtual project adaptation, students also submitted pre-recorded videos of their demonstration with the intent to allow the library to utilize the videos on their Web site. The project allowed the students to apply their biochemical knowledge and serve their community by designing an activity to engage young children in the STEM field. Students were able to practice their communication of biochemistry to a nonscientific audience, both in oral and in written form, and their ability to work together in a group format. This project can be utilized in other chemistry foundation and in-depth courses by altering the topic selection.
Casey A. Dougherty (Fri,) studied this question.