Meeting Abstract

82.4  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Service-Learning and Values-Based Discussions Enhance Science Education and Student Engagement GRABOWSKY, Gail*; KAHAKUI, Donna K.; ECKART, Lani; Chaminade University; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Kai Makana (NGO) ggrabows@chaminade.edu

It has been our experience in Hawaii that biology and environmental science courses more successfully achieve our course and Environmental Studies Program learning outcomes when we incorporate hands-on service-learning experiences in which the students actively apply biology/environmental science skills and knowledge to help ameliorate real-world environmental issues. Students also enjoy science courses with a service-learning component in the community more than courses without such a component. This greater success in achieving learning outcomes and course satisfaction when incorporating real-world service efforts into the curriculum is attributed to (1) the educational benefits of applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom and laboratory in the real-world, as well as (2) a greater level of engagement by our students because they feel their scientific efforts are benefitting the environment. Our students are very ethnically and culturally diverse. Many come from places where strong ecological ethics and traditional wisdom are intact/somewhat intact. For these students the science curriculum is perhaps most successfully delivered when discussions of ecological ethics and the value of nature are allowed to occur along side the dominant scientific components of the courses both in the classroom and in the field. It may be possible that the inclusion of hands-on service-learning and values-based discussions into science classrooms anywhere could help improve student engagement and the overall achievement of science education goals.