Exploring, Documenting, and Improving Humanitarian Service Learning through Engineers Without Borders USA

通过美国无国界工程师组织探索、记录和改进人道主义服务学习

• 批准号: 1540301
• 负责人: Elizabeth Buchanan
• 金额: $ 45.41万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Stout
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1540301&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploring; Documenting; Improving; Humanitarian; Service

This project explores how engineering and technology students experience service learning during their undergraduate programs. One example of service learning is Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USA, which seeks to find practical solutions to community concerns, such as clean water or sustainable sewage systems. Many universities and colleges offer such experiences to their students and believe they are contributing a valuable service to developing communities. However, service learning projects are often compromised because students graduate, and/or faculty leaders move to other institutions, and community ties are lost. The project seeks to find best practices for university/college-based service learning for all stakeholders in these enterprises. This project is a collaboration between Engineers Without Borders USA and University of Wisconsin-Stout researchers, teachers, and students. The project will unfold over four years and includes both engineering and social science students in the work. Student attitudes, beliefs, and goals about community involvement are explored in a cross-institutional way: In addition to studying the UW-Stout EWB chapter, the project looks at data collected by Engineers Without Borders USA, and examines trends and practices throughout chapter projects. A wider understanding of how to balance the needs of students and communities could be broadly applied to service learning projects outside of the STEM fields. More specifically, community development, economic development, and applied anthropology projects might benefit from this research. Finally, third party stake holders such as employers of STEM students are able to employ students who are better prepared to operate in the global workplace due to their participation in well-formed service learning opportunities. In summary, This work contributes to the development of an economically competitive STEM workforce by providing a guiding structure for effective and ethical service learning initiatives for STEM education. The overall project outcomes are disseminated publicly through a project website, traditional and lay publications and presentations, and the development and delivery of workshops. Further, project outcomes that specifically target the operation of EWB-USA projects are incorporated into the guidelines that are followed by EWB-USA's membership, which includes more than 14,000 individuals.

这个项目探讨了工程和技术专业的学生在本科课程期间如何体验服务学习。服务学习的一个例子是美国无国界工程师组织（EWB），该组织寻求为社区关注的问题找到切实可行的解决方案，例如清洁水或可持续的污水处理系统。许多大学和学院为他们的学生提供这样的经验，并认为他们正在为发展中的社区提供宝贵的服务。然而，服务学习项目往往是妥协，因为学生毕业，和/或教师领导人移动到其他机构，和社区的联系丢失。该项目旨在为这些企业的所有利益攸关方寻找大学/学院服务学习的最佳做法。 该项目是美国工程师无国界组织和威斯康星大学斯托特分校的研究人员、教师和学生之间的合作。该项目将在四年内展开，包括工程和社会科学学生的工作。学生的态度，信念和社区参与的目标是在一个跨机构的方式探索：除了研究UW-Stout EWB章，该项目着眼于工程师无国界美国收集的数据，并检查整个章节项目的趋势和做法。 对如何平衡学生和社区需求的更广泛理解可以广泛应用于STEM领域以外的服务学习项目。更具体地说，社区发展，经济发展和应用人类学项目可能会受益于这项研究。最后，第三方利益相关者，如STEM学生的雇主，能够雇用那些由于参与了良好的服务学习机会而更好地准备在全球工作场所工作的学生。总之，这项工作有助于发展具有经济竞争力的STEM劳动力，为STEM教育提供有效和道德服务学习计划的指导结构。项目的总体成果通过项目网站、传统和非专业出版物和介绍、以及讲习班的举办和举办而公开传播。此外，专门针对美国EWB项目运作的项目成果被纳入了美国EWB成员所遵循的准则，该成员包括14 000多名个人。