Stop, Look, Listen: Making a Difference in the Way Future Teachers Think About Science and Teaching

We draw on our experiences designing and implementing a SENCER course for future science teachers to discuss the benefits of an integrated and relevant community-based learning experience for future educators. Broad issues related to water and the environment form the core of our capstone course; students collaborate with environmental educators from a local non-profit environmental agency and teachers from area high schools in the design of service-learning projects that enable high school students to address environmental issues within their community. As a result, both groups of students strengthen their ties to the community and begin to appreciate the connection between environmental health and community health. The core principle of our approach has been to create sustainable, collaborative partnerships where all stakeholders are involved in the development process from planning through implementation and evaluation. By blurring the boundaries between formal and informal education, we have found that students are more engaged, they connect more effectively with the community and they begin to develop the tools they need to make science relevant to their own students.