Course Description:

I received credit for the service requirement through the application of AP credit for Biology. In this course, I was acutely aware of the ecosystem and those who inhabit from the smallest of amoeba to the largest of mammals. This course covered everything from the chemical composition of life to population dynamics of massive ecosystems. I also learned the impact of humans on the environment and how we can do better to take care of it.

Provide an example of a service learning project in which you set a goal and achieved it in collaboration with others from within the community. What parties were involved? Why? What need was being addressed? Reflect on how you developed a plan, worked with others, resolved issues, and used responsible decision-making in order to to pursue this goal. What might you do differently when faced with a similar situation in the future?

Outside of my service learning course, I sought to perform STEM outreach at large events such as the Oceana air show, the annual Pumpkin Drop at ODU, Mars Fest, etc. These events typically involved the ODU Society of Physics Students, and sought to perform STEM enrichment to a broader community – free to the public. Every event required different science demos catered the the needs and constraints of each location. For example, the Oceana Air Base is very strict on what you can and cannot bring onto the base. So instead of performing liquid nitrogen demonstrations, we opted to perform a conservation of angular momentum demo. This way we could still attract a large audience of K-12 aged students without breaking the rules present on the base. However, one major detractor from these events is that they require a LOT of planning and a LOT of cooperation to go well. Without a group of like-minded and motivated students, it is very hard to perform outreach. Fortunately, I have found a group of students passionate about outreach in the Society of Physics Students (SPS).

Reflect on your service learning course by discussing how lectures, assignments, and experiences had you explore and analyze civic issues. Provide specific examples and your views of those experiences.

During my service learning course, I was expected to view social and civic issues with an analytical eye. Not everything is as it seems. For example, climate change is a natural process that occurs on planets – however, our current rate of global climate change far exceeds that of natural processes. This is because the human contribution of fossil fuels and pollution is accelerating our climate change – causing global warming and more extreme weather patterns. Extending beyond the course itself, when I participated in ODU BLAST – which is a sort of summer “science camp” for middle and high-school aged children, I presented demonstrations and lessons on climate change. One of the key points of those lessons was teaching students the impact of human intervention in climate change. This is done in a simple experiment where students place alka-seltzer tablets in a bottle filled partially with water and place that and a control bottle underneath a heat lamp with thermometers to measure the temperature. The alka-seltzer tablets produce carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a greenhouse gas, causing the water bottle with the tablets to warm up faster than the control. We then plot this data to show students that the addition of greenhouse gasses emitted by humans is having a similar effect on our own atmosphere. It is lessons like these that I try to stress the most with students, because if we do not intervene now in their education we are only setting them up for failure in the future when they could have the potential to impact our environment in a meaningful way.