Now for the Science Bit - Implementing Pilot Community-Based Learning Projects with DIT Chemistry Students
Claire McDonnell (Dublin Institute of Technology)
Abstract
The development of pedagogies for civic engagement in Ireland is still at a relatively early stage. A pilot Community-Based Learning (CBL) programme was implemented in 2001 in the Faculty of Tourism and Food at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). This approach has since been extended further across DIT and the School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences opted to develop two CBL projects in 2006-7, one for a group of 18 second year Ordinary Degree students and another for a group of 28 Final Year Honours Degree students. The method used was to identify a suitable assessment already in place on a module and modify it so that it could be applied to the benefit of the community.
The assessment selected for the Second Year Chemistry group was part of their Professional Skills module. It entailed them developing and performing suitable demonstrations and posters and interacting with visiting second level students and presenters for an outreach event held in DIT, the Royal Society Chemistry (RSC) Chemistry at Work day. This year, for logistical reasons, this project involves working exclusively with 5th year Chemistry students from Synge St CBS.
For the other pilot project, as part of the assessment for their module on Chemical Control, final year undergraduates performed a laboratory safety audit and prepared several chemical risk assessments for local secondary schools. In 2007-8 and 2008-9, these students performed chemical risk assessments and safety audits in small businesses instead.
An additional initiative in collaboration with the Garda Road Safety Unit began in 2007-8 which involved a multidisciplinary project coordinated by the DIT Students Learning With Communities office. A final year Chemistry student performed breath and urine alcohol analysis on samples submitted anonymously by fellow students as part of this College Awareness of Road Safety project.
The responses obtained from student evaluation questionnaires on these CBL projects show that they prefer to apply the knowledge and skills they were learning to a real life situation and that they enjoy interacting with second level students and teachers and other members of the community. Any evaluations completed by community representatives involved have also been positive.
In this oral presentation, the implementation and evaluation of these pilot CBL Chemistry projects in DIT will be discussed and recommendations and plans for future developments will be outlined. As well as the benefits, the challenges that arise will also be addressed. These include the time involved to implement and organise the projects as well as difficulties encountered when requesting reflective writing assignments from undergraduate students who are not familiar with this approach because of their science background. The challenge of ensuring that projects undertaken meet a genuine community need rather than one that is assumed to be there by staff and students of DIT is also a significant one.
