Students in Jessica Pamment’s Introduction to Biology classes
have long been accustom to lectures and labs staple to a course taken by
non-biology majors to fulfill a requirement. For the last couple
of years, they have engaged in something different: an
experience that gives them real-world grounding
in how science can reach young people in under-resourced Chicago communities.
“One of my first questions was ‘How do we integrate service
learning into a biology class?,” asks Pamment. Her course has answered this
question through a project-based approach that places students in teams to design projects that reach young students at Chicago HOPES for Kids, an organization that provides educational
support for young children living in homeless shelters, as well as
at San Miguel School, a private and independent Catholic school that serves sixth
to eighth graders in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The Steans Center partners with San Miguel
and other Catholic schools through its Egan Office for Urban Education and Community Partnerships.
Pamment says she partly assesses students in the course based on evidence
of their preparation, organization, creativity, and how they manage their time in
groups. Her students' projects, centered on how young
students in Chicago communities can benefit from exposure
to STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), offer the contexts for achieving these objectives. Helen
Damon-Moore, Associate Director of the Steans Center, says that students in
Pamment’s class “create curriculum for younger students. That makes great sense because many schools are starved for STEM education.” At the same time, students in a biology course for non-majors learn course content through working in teams to design curriculum to teach others about biology, nutrition and science in general.
Professor Jessica Pamment
Pamment
credits the Steans Center with helping her integrate service learning into the
course. “The Steans Center has been amazing – without them there’s no way we
could have done it. They provided a lot of support. The key for this class was
delivering service learning activities without cutting the original content of
the class.”
Emme Veenbaas, a former service learning coordinator at the Steans
Center who was pursuing a master’s in women and gender studies at DePaul, worked
with project-based courses on biology and other subjects. Veenbaas
led reflections with the biology students about their experience and
how it relates to their education. “We really try to drive the point that the
project goes beyond the class,” she says.
“Students are learning great career skills – they have to meet someone
else’s expectations and develop a project. These projects are a great way for
students to be active participants in their learning - and an opportunity to
make an impact in a school.”
Miranda Standberry-Wallace, Academic and Community Service
Learning Coordinator at the Steans Center, says that Pamment’s class is showing
students how their engagement with communities is making a difference. “Students see this is not just a
required course. This kind of course is activating their activism.”
Erin Hempstead, Director of Academic Intervention Programs
at San Miguel School, has worked at the school for ten years and says that
“service learning by DePaul students flips the idea of service. Sometimes
people have this idea of going to an organization and being the person in
power. When DePaul students come to San Miguel it levels the playing field a
little bit – these students and our
students both have things to share and give. We’re really grateful for the
relationship with DePaul, and we’d love to see how it can continue to grow.”
Samuel Mayers-White, a master’s student in school
counseling, works at the Egan
Office and is a site coordinator at San Miguel School through the Catholic
Schools Internship Program. His role includes serving as a liaison between San
Miguel and DePaul as well as other community assets. Mayers-White says the STEM focus of biology students “is in
line with what San Miguel tries to do – make STEM feel accessible to its
students. It’s a real asset to the teachers for DePaul students to provide new
ideas that help teachers present the material and shape it in new ways. I
definitely think service learning could work for other science classes as
well.”
At Chicago HOPES for Kids, Executive Director Patricia
Rivera says part of the process with the class has been recognizing that a
low-tech approach will work better for students than a higher tech approach,
since students don’t have the kind of access to computers that students in many
schools are used to. “I asked them to think more about younger kids –
kindergarten through fifth grade – and then do things where they could move
blocks around or cut things out or have a race. They did a real nice job. The
DePaul students came up with ideas for games, teaching about science, biology
and nutrition.” Rivera has visited the class at DePaul at the start and end of
quarters.
It’s important that people in a school like ours that has access to
resources can do whatever we can to reach out to communities
Jessica Freeman, a sophomore from Springfield who majors in
secondary art education, took the biology class in the fall of 2017. She worked
with a group of four students to make a Jeopardy game that went to San Miguel
students. “We made a slide show and questions for a Jeopardy game that shared
information about nutrition, breaking down what foods do what, and related
subjects. I was surprised by how much I learned, and was encouraged that what I
was learning would be translated to students at San Miguel. A lot of kids don’t
have people telling them about healthy foods.”
Nick Riback, a sophomore from Scottsdale, AZ who is majoring
in political science, developed a presentation that “compared science to pseudoscience.” He
adds that his group’s project focused on “how actual scientific evidence is
linked to factual behavior.” Riback says that his experience in the biology class is as
much about learning as teaching kids through these projects. “We are doing so
much research that we are learning a lot about our topics,” he says.
Meanwhile, Matthew Roney, a junior majoring in political
science from Mokena, IL worked on a group project for students at Chicago
HOPES for Kids. His group created a physical board game through which kids
learn about biology and how DNA works. “This service learning project created a
whole new dynamic for students,” he says. “It was great to know that third
through fifth graders can use the game we created as a way to learn about STEM.”
Roney adds that he believes the project “can be replicated at other program
sites – and in other classes as well.”
Christian Flanary, an advertising major who graduated in
June 2018, engaged in a project during the fall of 2017 with
Chicago HOPES for Kids. Like many students in the class, Pamment says, Flanary
was able to utilize his talents gained from the experience. “I made
this rap song about nutrition for the class, and I did it to the tune of a
Biggie Smalls rap,” he said. Flanary’s song included the following lyrics: “All them sugar and fats,
as a matter of fact,/are terrible for your body,/ so it’s time to act/yeah it’s
time to get healthy and active, don’t delay/Thank you for letting me rap today.”
Flanary further noted that “It’s important that people in a school like ours that has access to
resources can do whatever we can to reach out to communities,” he says. “In
doing so, sometimes you have to be creative. That’s why I did it as a rap. It
was lighthearted and fun – but students paid attention.”
“Overall,” Pamment adds, “My students enjoy the course more
because of the service learning component,” she says. “It also improves the
dynamics in the classroom when students work together on projects.” While students take her course for a quarter, her
engagement with Chicago HOPES and San Miguel have become long-term
relationships. “The longer you work with a partner,” she says, “the more value
it has. What if one or two children who are exposed to a DNA model or model of
a cell show an interest in those subjects? What if a child who wouldn’t have
considered going to college sees that they can do that? We have a chance to
expose these kids to new things. Maybe they’ll say ‘Hey, I want to do that.’”