Impact of a service-Learning Project on student success in Allied Health Microbiology course

Abstract

Education research shows many benefits of involving students in service learning. However, designing service-learning projects for science courses such as microbiology can be problematic. This article describes an effective, easily adapted project design that gets allied-health microbiology students to apply classroom knowledge towards educating the general public about infectious diseases.

Student Attitudes Regarding Active Learning In Health Professions Microbiology Course

“…Regarding the type 3 project (community service), while students preferred project types 1, 2 & 4 over type 3 by roughly 2:1, those students that did prefer type 3 gave comments about how it enabled them to do things that benefited the community, and valued it for that reason. A similar result occurred in other studies involving microbiology students engaged in service projects (Larios-Sanz et al, 2011;Cain, 2013). Finally, regarding the type 4 project (lab research), students considered it to be both "fun" and "hands on."…”

Service-Learning, Movies, and Infectious Diseases: Implementation of an Active Educational Program in Microbiology as a Tool for Engagement in Social Justice

“…Service-Learning initiatives specifically focused on clinical microbiology are usually included as a part of Public Health actions for Nursing or Medicine courses ( Larios-Sanz et al, 2011 ; Abu-Shakra, 2012 ; Cain, 2013 ; Stewart and Wubbena, 2014 ), but they are less used in Bachelor Degrees in Sciences. The S-L program described in this work was developed with students and university tutors of Biology, Biochemistry, and Pharmacy, as these degrees include courses on Clinical Microbiology, and this would indicate the usefulness of this type of S-L programs in different university careers.…”

Student Initiative Enhances Service Learning and Community Engagement in a Health Professions Microbiology Course

“…A somewhat similar observation was made in a study where many medical microbiology and cell biology students, when surveyed after doing a service-learning assignment, didn’t believe the experience had enhanced their learning of course content but felt it had benefited the community ( 5 ). Yet, in another study involving introductory biology students performing service learning ( 8 ), the most common theme was “biology knowledge/skills.” Somewhat overlapping both themes, allied health microbiology students involved in a directed service-learning activity ( 6 ), when specifically surveyed, commented positively on the career relevance and altruism of their service as well as the relevance to course content. The different themes among these studies may reflect differences in the types of students: freshman biology majors ( 8 ) versus sophomore–junior students focused on healthcare careers as in the current study and others ( 5 , 6 ).…”

“…Use of SLCE in microbiology education has been relatively more recent and limited to highly structured student volunteer activities requiring much planning and direction from the course instructor, and coordination with outside institutions (4). The most common examples have been students volunteering at medical clinics and health fairs (5,6), but these have tended to involve everyone in the class doing the same activity or volunteering in the same setting. Many other SLCE activities exist, however.…”