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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2004  > February  >
In the Classroom
Integrating Project-Based Service-Learning into an Advanced Environmental Chemistry Course
Alison J. Draper
Department of Chemistry, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837

Cover
February 2004
Vol. 81 No. 2
p. 221

Abstract
In an advanced environmental chemistry course, the inclusion of semester-long scientific service projects successfully integrated the research process with course content. Each project involved a unique community-based environmental analysis in which students assessed an aspect of environmental health. The projects were due in small pieces at even intervals, and students worked independently or in pairs. Initially, students wrote a project proposal in which they chose and justified a project. Following a literature review of their topic, they drafted sampling and analysis plans using methods in the literature. Samples were collected and analyzed, and all students assembled scientific posters describing the results of their study. In the last week of the semester, the class traveled to a regional professional meeting to present the posters. In all, students found the experience valuable. They learned to be professional environmental chemists and learned the value of the discipline to community health. Students not only learned about their own project in depth, but they were inspired to learn textbook material, not for an exam, but because it helped them understand their own project. Finally, having a community to answer to at the end of the project motivated students to do careful work.
More Information
*  Citation
Draper, Alison J. J. Chem. Educ. 2004 81 221.
*  Keywords
Collaborative / Cooperative Learning; Environmental Chemistry; Inquiry-Based / Discovery Method; Teaching / Learning Theory / Practice
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
January 5, 2004
February 25, 2005
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2004 > February > Page 221


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