Cultivating Scientific Literacy and Action through Place-based Experiential Learning: Expanding the Use of a Campus Farm as an Interdisciplinary Learning Hub

Butler University, Indianapolis IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest in undergraduate STEM education by studying how place-based experiential learning (PBEL) can enhance undergraduate student learning about science. PBEL is an instructional strategy that connects student learning to a local context. It also provides students with opportunities to identify, define, and solve real problems. The nation's ability to solve the complex problems it faces and to maintain national prosperity require educating both students who enter the STEM workforce and students who pursue non-STEM careers. Consequently, this project will serve both STEM majors and non-majors. Although the number of campus farms has increased 13-fold since 1992, they remain an underused resource for undergraduate education. This project aims to use campus farms as a local context for authentic, interdisciplinary STEM learning. To achieve this goal, the project will develop and implement campus farm-based PBEL modules that integrate STEM disciplines and non-STEM disciplines such as business and communication. Students will have opportunities to apply multiple types of knowledge and inquiry strategies within their PBEL course work. Such learning experiences have been shown to increase student and instructor enthusiasm, enjoyment, engagement, content knowledge, critical thinking, and civic mindedness. Results of this project have the potential to make STEM accessible to more students, to educate the future workforce about how to successfully participate in interdisciplinary collaborations, and to enhance perceptions about STEM's role in society. The Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability at Butler University will leverage Butler's campus farm as a place of inquiry, discourse, and community engagement. The project will pursue two goals: 1) to develop and implement a collection cross-disciplinary PBEL course modules for both STEM major and non-major courses; and 2) to measure project efficacy in achieving outcomes including student learning (e.g., environmental science literacy; scientific reasoning; place attachment and meaning; civic mindedness), faculty collaboration, and institutional sustainability. To achieve these goals, the Center's previously-developed PBEL framework will be refined and used to guide a faculty-staff learning community. This learning community will facilitate the effective design and implementation of farm-situated PBEL modules in STEM and non-STEM courses. Researchers from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology and the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will quantify and qualitatively examine PBEL implementation fidelity, identify best practices to improve curricular implementation, and determine impacts on targeted student outcomes. Long-term, the project expects to scale its approach to other undergraduate institutions that have campus-based farms, and to expand the curriculum to include ethics. The project activities have the potential to be modified for use in multiple formal and informal educational settings. This project is a Development and Implementation project (Engaged Student Learning track) that is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program: Education and Human Resources (EHR). The IUSE : EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all undergraduate students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the Program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising educational tools and practices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.