Objectives

Resource Survey and Agreements

A collaboration involving CSUF faculty, science majors, and public school teachers is working to guide students through community service learning opportunities for academic credit according to the guidelines of the CSUF Policy on Community Service Learning.  Each student partners with an experienced science teacher mentor to involve children with hands-on activities designed to show the interconnectedness of basic science concepts. The CSUF students will strengthen their knowledge of basic science principles, refine their written and oral communications skills, and develop a sense of social responsibility and the leadership qualities to take action to resolve science education issues. Community Service Learning in a science classroom has the potential to provide an environment for CSUF students to strengthen their knowledge of biology by confronting them with unanticipated opportunities to integrate biology knowledge with the most basic and foundational science principles.

Objectives:

Objective 1: This proposal aims to strengthen student knowledge of basic science principles.  

Objective 2: A cohort of students, faculty, and science teacher mentors will meet weekly to reflect on issues in science teaching and learning.

Objective 3: A major goal of this proposal is to refine students' written and oral communications skills. 

Objective 4: An expected outcome is a cohort of CSUF students who have discovered that their knowledge is a resource for the community and who have a sense of social responsibility and the leadership qualities to understand and take action to resolve science education issues. 

Evaluation

Evaluation is designed to determine whether the course objectives are met:

Objective 1: This proposal aims to strengthen student knowledge of basic science principles. In weekly seminars, discussions will include explanations of major concepts within lessons, providing an opportunity to identify common misconceptions.  Videotape recording of student conversations will serve as a resource for reflection on thinking about science principles and the connections between concepts.

Objective 2: The proposal aims to build a cohort of students who are partnered with experienced science teacher mentors.  Success will be indicated through evidence of long term relationships between university students and the public school teachers in our community.  The short term measure of success will be determined through meetings with teacher partners using an adaptation of the Community Focus Group Protocol from Assessing the Impact of Student Learning: A Workbook of Strategies and Methods published by the Center for Academic Excellence, Portland State University, April, 1998.  One third of the student's course grade will be determined by the teacher mentor using a rubric that will be agreed upon by the student and the mentor teacher.

Objective 3: A major goal of this proposal is to refine our students' written and oral communications skills.  According to the January, 2000, Higher Education Research Institute publication (HERI), How Service Learning Affects Students, service learning should connect service to the academic subject matter, in this case, biology.  This will be assessed through writing assignments.  For example, students may write on questioning strategies that reveal student thinking about biological principles.  Writing assignments will culminate in either a term paper with bibliographic references to the research literature or as a reflection journal or an electronic portfolio that reveals progress over time.

Objective 4: An expected outcome is a cohort of CSUF students who have discovered that their knowledge is a resource for the community and who have a sense of social responsibility and the leadership qualities to understand and take action to resolve science education issues.  In addition to the academic values listed above, the HERI study reveals significant improvement in community service learning student values, personal efficacy, awareness of the world, and leadership. To measure the impact of service learning in these areas, pre- and post- tests will be administered to community service learning students and compared to a similar test administered to BIOL480 students who are not involved in service learning. The instruments were adapted from the Service-Learning Research and Development Center at U.C. Berkeley's Evaluation System for Experiential Education (ESEE).

Relationship to CSUF Mission and Goals

This program will specifically address the following goals according to the CSUF Mission and Goals statement:

·        The plan is to establish "a high quality program that meets the evolving needs of our students and community."

·        This program will support the development of knowledge about teaching and learning that will be useful for both pre-professional science teachers and professional biologists.

·        Students will "integrate knowledge (of science) with the development of values, professional ethics, and the teamwork, leadership, and citizenship skills necessary for students to make meaningful contributions to society."

·        As a result of these efforts, we will "develop mutually beneficial working partnerships with public and private sectors within our region."

This project is also designed to follow the Goal Three Steps of the September, 1997, Community Service-Learning Strategic Plan for the California State University.  Establishment of a community advisory panel and development of assessment techniques to evaluate partnership outcomes and disseminate findings are two of the Goal Three Steps that will be explicitly addressed.