An Academic Club Service Learning Project as a Demonstration of Experiential Teaching Tools

Abstract

We describe our pedagogical approaches and experiences with an academic club service learning project (one semester, 20 club participants, including both graduate students and lower and upper-level undergraduates). Our service learning project responds to the recent demand for more community service-based club projects within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at University of Florida. As advisors our goal is to provide the support and tools to help train agricultural professionals. We want the students to value their membership as a means to gain additional academic and professional skills outside the classroom setting. Our goal for this project was to integrate methodology using both the plant science and soil-water science curricula to help broaden student's experiential learning outside the classroom. The students entered this service learning project in a national poster contest at the annual meetings within the Students of Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Science and placed second. Ultimately, we expect that this activity will facilitate development of a civic professionalism through which students can apply their professional skills to complex public problems in agriculture and environmental science.