Down to Earth Transcript
[Kara Brascia, Service-Learning Director]: Straight classroom work is really effective in certain classes, but there’s other situations, other classes, other types of students that really benefit from Hands-On. Like how can we practice this concept, right, or how can we see how this relates to the world that you care about? Service-Learning really focuses on what the student can learn and what the students need to learn for that class. so it’s taking that class material and applying it in the community or for the community.
[James Grantham, Service-Learning Student Leader]: For me I’m also an Environmental Studies student and I did an Environmental Studies Service-Learning course and it was very impactful to actually be out and doing the work and seeing you know what conservation really means. Especially close to the city. A lot of the time people think of conservation efforts as being out in the middle of nowhere, and you know restoring habitats, full habitats and sometimes it means creating a place where people can also go and just creating a space back to what it was before a fire, things like that. So it’s very important for students to understand exactly what conservation entails. A lot of what they’re doing now is fire restoration, so they’re planting a lot of things and pulling seeds. And the reason the students are so important with this group is because there’s a lot of work to be done so just to make sure that the restoration actually happens they need the students to come out and help with that. Students tend to be very motivated to actually participate, especially because the programs that they go to with the Service-Learning Department are related to what they’re studying and it helps some students understand the concepts a little bit better when they can actually have the hands-on experience.
[Mari Rice, Environmental Studies 121 Professor]: Environmental studies 121, when I took over, had a few partners, we had a program, so I was able to pick up that program and just just build on it. Working with a community partner and being a part of something bigger, seeing our collective action together, being able to address real challenges, or I don’t know, it just gives a lot of meaning and relevance to my job and I love collaborating with the community. I just love everything about it.
[Kara]: Service-Learning, being that it’s hands-on practice applied learning, is really good for students that want to get out there and try out: how does this learning work in the community, in my life, in my career? So it gives them so much more to take from it.
Prosthetic Power Transcript
[Tom Woolf, ME477 Student]: We are in the process of developing a prosthetic limb for a peacock and so we’re measuring it to, hopefully, fit pretty well both in height and how it fits around his leg. We had to be careful about the materials we chose. We have two different designs with a couple different feet. We have a couple of different designers, and then I’ve been building them and 3D printing them. I’m a mechanical engineering major. I am in my last term. I’m about to graduate and we’ve been learning all about kind of the history of biomaterials, all the way up through what they’re doing now and different techniques. But yeah we talked about all sorts of things, prosthetic limbs all the way to like pacemakers and stuff like that.
[Kara Brascia, Service-Learning Director]: Service-Learning really focuses on what the student can learn and what the students need to learn for that class, so it’s taking that class material and applying it in the community or for the community.
[Noah Montrose, ME477 Student]: Why are we learning this? It’s like why does this matter? Like when we actually start applying things, then it starts making sense but if we just learn it to like never use it like it just doesn’t make sense.
[Brandon Keenan, ME477 Student]: This is kind of like a really good intro to, like the senior project of working with the sponsor, working with your group and then like making a product from like birth to the grave. I’d say the actual, like coming out here part it’s like a nice little spice up compared to every other class we’ve been in.
[Kara]: When I look out into the world I see a beautiful world and I also see people struggling and different things like climate change, and mental health issues, and food insecurity, and housing issues, pollution and so, on one hand it’s beautiful on the other hand there’s things that we want to address. And what I’m so excited about is being part of the solution. And so what I get to do is do what I love, do what I’m good at, and do what the world needs. All those come together and for me that’s Service-Learning.