(733e) Building the Community Through Service Learning: Assessing the Effect of Service-Learning Group Projects On Intrinsic Motivation, Depth of Understanding, and Leadership Development During a Junior-Level Core Chemical Engineering Class

Group projects have been shown in many cases to improve student learning by giving students the opportunity to apply course topics to real experiments.  Here we seek to expand the influence of a group project beyond the participating undergraduate students to the community at large without sacrificing the learning experience.  Specifically, we have integrated a service-learning group project into a Junior-level Heat and Mass Transfer Course which has directly influenced over 1,500 K-12 students.  An IRB-approved survey was performed which asked students to rate how the service-learning project impacted their intrinsic motivation, depth of understanding and leadership development.   Herein we present the results of this survey and our experience on how projects can be optimized for both undergraduate student learning and service to the community.