SERVICE LEARNING IN STEM: TEACHING SCIENCE BY WRITING FOR THE PUBLIC

The students who pursue higher education in the sciences will acquire highly specialized knowledge of biomedicine and technical skillsets. However, the careers in which students will ultimately find themselves will require them to convey this complex information to a non-scientific audience. Providing an opportunity for students to develop these translational skills is a critical responsibility of basic and life science departments. Service learning courses provide one avenue of opportunity, but are rare in STEM due to the rigid structure of these majors and the heavy emphasis on technical knowledge. Here we present a model course offered at the University of Connecticut as an example of how to adapt the three phase developmental model of service learning curriculum to a one semester course that fits in a STEM department. We also provide preliminary evidence that engaged scholarship is an effective pedagogical tool that captures student interest and hones skills that are directly applicable to post-graduate life.