Learning in and with the community: A review of how science educators connect classroom and community learning

Service-learning (SL) is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs and then reflect on those service experiences through structured opportunities designed to promote student learning and development. SL has been embraced by the social science, nursing, and teacher education courses since the early 1990s with service activities such as working in food banks, volunteering in free clinics, and tutoring at-risk students. This pedagogy didn’t cross over to the sciences until almost a decade later, and SL is still somewhat rare in the sciences compared to other disciplines. Nevertheless, we see a dramatic increase in SL in the sciences in recent year, perhaps in response to a trend seen in many colleges and universities towards preparing students for lives of civic responsibility, and towards renewed commitment by these institutions to teach students to contribute their knowledge to local and global communities and to create knowledge with them. In this talk, we address this shift in science education, and review the different approaches taken by science educators to learning in and with the community. The “service” that students perform in science courses ranges from teaching science to school-aged children to participating in garage clean up at a local river to conducting community-based scientific research. Similarly, the role played by the community ranges from passive hosts to active collaborator. We discuss the implications of these differences on students, faculty, and the community, and discuss the ways in which these programs promote public understanding of science.