Service Learning In Engineering: What, Why, And How?

Service-learning is an emerging pedagogy, recently adopted in many academic disciplines and institutions.Campus Compact (a national group of about 620 colleges and universities) estimates over 11,000 courses have incorporated service-learning nationwide.Service-learning involves the joining of both academic coursework and community service with key features including reciprocity, reflection, and community-expressed needs.Previous studies have shown positive effects of service-learning on a wide variety of cognitive and affective measures, many of which match the criteria of ABET (for example, those dealing with interdisciplinary teams, ethical responsibility, impact of engineering in a global and societal context, and effective communication).Examples of service-learning in engineering range from first-year design courses coupled with local schools at University of South Alabama and at University of San Diego to senior and graduate courses at University of Massachusetts Lowell coupled with a local Habitat for Humanity chapter and medical clinics in Peru.The challenge in implementation is maintaining subject matter content in courses while meeting real community needs.A survey was distributed to engineering colleges throughout the US to discover how widespread servicelearning and community-based projects are in engineering.