Eighth Annual National Urban Service-Learning Institute Explored Connections between Service-Learning and STEM

On August 15 and 16, more than 200 educators and researchers from across the United States came together in St. Paul, Minn., at the Eighth Annual National Urban Service-Learning Institute. This year, the gathering took place within the Colloquium on P-12 STEM Education Research at the University of Minnesota. Attendees explored how service-learning can help improve and integrate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction, particularly in urban settings.

By joining with the University of Minnesota’s STEM Education Center, NYLC had an opportunity to reach teachers and researchers previously unfamiliar with service-learning. A series of workshops and sessions help attendees implement academically rigorous service-learning, learn about evaluation results of successful STEM focused service-learning programs, and explore what service-learning means in an urban context. 

STEM education has become an increasingly important area of interest in education due to the increasing number of jobs that rely on employees skilled in those subjects.  According to the National Science Board the total number of jobs in the science and engineering fields will more than double from 2006 to 2016. The increasing gap in girls and minorities pursuing STEM careers was presented as a vital issue to address, and many of the presenters during the Colloquium dedicated sessions to innovative ways to work with those students.

Patricia Paulson from Bethel University presented a program that allows young girls to spend a day in the University’s science labs with female professors and STEM professionals. The girls experience STEM in small groups with supportive mentors and participate in hands-on projects specially designed to be personally relevant. The girls experience STEM at a university level and meet women in the STEM fields — experiences that these young girls may have never have considered a possibility in the past.

Eric Jolle, president of the Science Museum of Minnesota, spoke to the importance of reaching different cultures through the STEM disciplines. Drawing on his Native American heritage and the example of making a basket , he emphasized that we must “learn the metaphors for the communities in which we are teaching.”  The basket has cultural relevance but also offered a lesson in volume, math, and physics that students can relate to.

NYLC’s sessions focused on best practices for developing urban stewards through service-learning, designing academically rigorous service-learning opportunities focusing on STEM subjects, and strong evaluation results from NYLC’s Generator Go Green Initiative. “Service-learning gives students the opportunity to see and understand real-world connections to what they learn in their science classrooms,” said Elizabeth Koenig, coordinator for NYLC’s Generator Go Green Initiative. “Students are able to connect learning about photosynthesis to the growth in the community garden, or observe the ecosystems that they read about in action in their local park.” By connecting service-learning to teach STEM, teachers are able to connect with students who might otherwise not have seen themselves pursuing further education and employment in STEM fields.