Service-Learning through Student Generated Tutorial Videos

Anne Schmitz; Nicholas B Conklin; Quyen Aoh

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Publication Date: April 6, 2018
Start Date: April 6, 2018
End Date: April 7, 2018
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--29486
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/29486
Download Count: 258

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Paper Authors

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Anne Schmitz Gannon University

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I received my Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During my schooling, I explored many opportunities to apply my engineering degree. I was involved with the Formula One Racecar Team, did a semester long co-op working on fume hoods, did a summer internship at Kimberly Clark designing a HVAC system, and did another summer internship at General Electric designing anesthesia equipment. As a senior, I got involved in research doing finite element analyses of a prosthetic foot. This immediately got me hooked on applying engineering to medical applications.

I obtained my Biomedical Engineering PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My work focused on computational biomechanics. More specifically, developing musculoskeletal models of the body to simulate movement and see how surgery and soft tissue injury affects movement. During my graduate work, I was also a teaching assistant for Introduction to Biomechanics where I developed a love for teaching. I then did postdoctoral research at the University of Kentucky where I experimentally measured movements (e.g running form), which provides data that can be used to validate the models I build. Here at Gannon University, I will continue building computational models with a focus on the knee to optimize surgical techniques (e.g. ACL reconstruction) to restore normal function after injury. When I'm not doing research, I enjoy going swimming and playing my violin.

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Nicholas B Conklin Gannon University

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Nicholas B. Conklin received a B.S. in applied physics from Grove City College in 2001, and a Ph.D. in physics from Penn State University in 2009. He is currently an associate professor and chair of the Physics Department at Gannon University, Erie, PA.

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Quyen Aoh Aoh Gannon University

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Assistant Professor of Biology

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Abstract

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2022, occupations in science, technology, engineering, and math, collectively called STEM, are expected to make up over five percent of all jobs. Indeed, the new global economy is being built on the foundation of the STEM fields. In particular, engineers will be in increasingly high demand and will have some of the fastest job growth in the next decade. However, preparing students to enter into and contribute to this new economy will require not only teaching them the technical expertise to innovate, but also communication skills to interact with and collaborate with others in interdisciplinary fields and with the general public. More and more, engineers need to able to convey highly technical information to a non-technical audience. However, opportunities to develop these skills are often limited in the undergraduate classroom setting.

To help develop students’ ability to communicate to a non-technical audience, we implemented a service-learning project whereby students in a biomedical engineering class produced tutorial videos that demonstrated how to construct the Foldscope Microscope, an inexpensive paper microscope developed at Stanford University. The videos were then used in a STEM outreach program for middle school students, in which the middle school students constructed and used a Foldscope. To generate the video, students had to interpret the technical instructions found online, produce a video that could be easily accessible, and demonstrate how to construct the Foldscope in a manner that was engaging and understandable to a middle school student.

Student attitudes and learning outcomes were surveyed at the end of project. The majority of students felt the project enhanced a number of communication skills and broadened their perspective of how they could use their engineering skills to serve others. One video was selected to be used in the STEM outreach program. Several students in the outreach program commented on the excellent quality of the video and we observed a number of students referring to the video during the construction of the Foldscope. These results demonstrate that the production of tutorial videos can provide a meaningful, service-oriented learning experience for students to develop communication, collaborative, and critical thinking skills.

Citation
Format

Schmitz, A., & Conklin, N. B., & Aoh, Q. (2018, April), Service-Learning through Student Generated Tutorial Videos Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--29486

TY - CPAPER
AB - Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2022, occupations in science, technology, engineering, and math, collectively called STEM, are expected to make up over five percent of all jobs. Indeed, the new global economy is being built on the foundation of the STEM fields. In particular, engineers will be in increasingly high demand and will have some of the fastest job growth in the next decade. However, preparing students to enter into and contribute to this new economy will require not only teaching them the technical expertise to innovate, but also communication skills to interact with and collaborate with others in interdisciplinary fields and with the general public. More and more, engineers need to able to convey highly technical information to a non-technical audience. However, opportunities to develop these skills are often limited in the undergraduate classroom setting.

To help develop students’ ability to communicate to a non-technical audience, we implemented a service-learning project whereby students in a biomedical engineering class produced tutorial videos that demonstrated how to construct the Foldscope Microscope, an inexpensive paper microscope developed at Stanford University. The videos were then used in a STEM outreach program for middle school students, in which the middle school students constructed and used a Foldscope. To generate the video, students had to interpret the technical instructions found online, produce a video that could be easily accessible, and demonstrate how to construct the Foldscope in a manner that was engaging and understandable to a middle school student.

Student attitudes and learning outcomes were surveyed at the end of project. The majority of students felt the project enhanced a number of communication skills and broadened their perspective of how they could use their engineering skills to serve others. One video was selected to be used in the STEM outreach program. Several students in the outreach program commented on the excellent quality of the video and we observed a number of students referring to the video during the construction of the Foldscope. These results demonstrate that the production of tutorial videos can provide a meaningful, service-oriented learning experience for students to develop communication, collaborative, and critical thinking skills.

AU - Anne Schmitz
AU - Nicholas B Conklin
AU - Quyen Aoh Aoh
CY - Washington, District of Columbia
DA - 2018/04/06
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Service-Learning through Student Generated Tutorial Videos
UR - https://peer.asee.org/29486
DO - 10.18260/1-2--29486
ER -