Service Learning in Engineering Education: A Study of Student-Participatory Survey for Urban Canal Rejuvenation in Kochi, India

Abstract

Abstract It is widely accepted that learning through doing, or service learning (SL) and engaging students in community centred project based learning (PBL) is transformative in terms of enhancing student learning and employability, effectively improving both technical and soft skills that are sought after by employers, while at the same time growing and developing an informed and educated citizenry. Participatory learning here is a pedagogical approach in which students involve themselves in a community-based project, which has proven to be more effective than direct lecture based transfer and absorption of knowledge. In this paper, we present a case study from Kochi city in Kerala, India, where undergraduate (UG) engineering students from the environmental engineering (EE) program at SCMS School of Engineering and Technology (SSET) participated voluntarily in the comprehensive survey of a 10.87 km canal running through busy, dense and heavily populated urban area of Kochi City. This Thevara-Perandoor (T-P) canal was a heavily used commercial artery for the city. Unfortunately, the T-P canal is now totally degraded, primarily due to unregulated solid waste dumping and untreated sewage inflows at numerous locations along its course throughout the urban space. The UG students of the CE program at SSET voluntarily came forward to do the study on behalf of Kochi Municipal Corporation (KMC). This partnership, between an academic program and a community based entity, such as a municipal corporation or any other community based entity, establishes a model for integrating meaningful service learning into engineering education. The partnership provided an immense opportunity for the students to implement whatever they had learned in the classroom and doing so by working for the benefit of the community in which they themselves were resident. This paper describes the practices that are being followed in this service learning exercise. The paper also focuses on the impediments as well as the opportunities that exist for both widening and deepening the knowledge domain of the students, while working on the mentioned urban canal survey. The value and impact of the model described through the examined case study is especially important, given that the notion of service learning as a pedagogical approach is gaining momentum in the Indian engineering education sector, and when programs such as Unnat Bharath Abhiyan which focuses on and mandates utilizing student voluntary work for rural development are being implemented.