Begley Gail S
Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2013 Dec 2;14(2):213-20. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v14i2.596. eCollection 2013.
This report describes service-learning in a first-year majors biology course in which students serve throughout the semester with community partners for an average of 25 hours/student. All of the partnerships are based on providing engaging hands-on biology activities for youth in underserved urban areas surrounding the campus. Students in the course have designed new lessons and activities, supported biology labs, mentored younger students, and facilitated afterschool science clubs. Throughout the course, integration between the students' service experience in the community and their learning in the course is emphasized. This is accomplished in multiple ways including class discussion, group activities, feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant, and weekly blogs. A three-year average of anonymous university-wide course evaluations suggested that students in this service-learning course considered their biology course to be highly rigorous. In both blogs and anonymous surveys students reported that their service and its integration with the course not only advanced their professional skills and sense of community engagement, but also enhanced their learning in biology.
本报告描述了在一门面向生物专业一年级学生的课程中的服务学习情况，在整个学期里，学生们与社区合作伙伴一起服务，平均每人25小时。所有合作关系的基础都是为校园周边服务欠缺的城市地区的青少年提供引人入胜的生物实践活动。该课程的学生设计了新的课程和活动，协助生物实验室工作，辅导低年级学生，并为课后科学俱乐部提供便利。在整个课程中，强调学生在社区的服务经历与他们在课程中的学习之间的融合。这通过多种方式实现，包括课堂讨论、小组活动、教师和助教的反馈以及每周的博客。对全校课程进行的为期三年的匿名评估显示，参加这一服务学习课程的学生认为他们的生物课程要求非常严格。在博客和匿名调查中，学生们都表示，他们的服务以及服务与课程的融合不仅提升了他们的专业技能和社区参与感，还增强了他们在生物学方面的学习。
