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Workshop: Integrating Service Learning into First-Year Engineering Courses: A Hands-On Workshop

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Conference

FYEE 2025 Conference

Location

University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland

Publication Date

July 27, 2025

Start Date

July 27, 2025

End Date

July 29, 2025

Conference Session

WORKSHOP I: Integrating Service Learning into First-Year Engineering Courses: A Hands-On Workshop

Tagged Topic

FYEE 2025

Page Count

4

DOI

10.18260/1-2--55289

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/55289

Download Count

17

Paper Authors

biography

Kathryn Schulte Grahame Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-2255

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Dr. Kathryn Schulte Grahame is a Teaching Professor at Northeastern University and the Associate Director of the First-Year Engineering Team at Northeastern University. The focus of this team is on providing a consistent, comprehensive, and constructive educational experience that endorses the student-centered, professional and practice-oriented mission of Northeastern University. She teaches the Cornerstone of Engineering courses to first-year students as well as courses within the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She is a recipient of the Martin Essigman Outstanding Teahing award, the Excellence in Mentoring Award, and the Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Students Award. Her research interests include service-learning and work that informs and enhances the teaching of first-year students.

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biography

Brian Patrick O'Connell Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-6626-256X

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Dr. O'Connell is an associate teaching professor in the First-Year Engineering program at Northeastern University. He studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006, then worked in industry as a Mechanical Engineer working on ruggedized submarine optronic systems. He returned to academia in 2011 at Tufts University, planning to work towards more advanced R&D but fell for engineering education and educational technologies. His research now focuses on developing engineering technologies and learning environments, specifically makerspaces, to support engineering education at many levels. He's also heavily involved with his local FIRST Robotics Challenge team as a mentor.

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biography

Anne Shea Northeastern University

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Annie Shea is an undergraduate Chemical and Environmental Engineering student at Northeastern University. As a service-learning teaching assistant, she partners with community organizations to provide STEAM opportunities for elementary students and promote human-centered engineering in the university classroom. She is the education coordinator for the university's Alliance of Civically Engaged Students, and works as an electrochemical engineering co-op at Sora Fuel, a startup that produces carbon neutral aviation fuel.

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Kennedy Gallagher Northeastern University

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Abstract

Service learning provides a powerful opportunity to enhance first-year engineering education by connecting coursework with real-world impact. However, establishing sustainable service-learning partnerships and effectively aligning them with engineering curricula presents significant challenges. This interactive workshop will equip educators with the tools and strategies to develop sustainable service-learning partnerships and integrate them effectively into their courses.

Participants will:

*Explore Key Elements of successful service-learning initiatives, including sustained partnerships, clear communication strategies, and course alignment with community needs. *Engage in Hands-On Activities to map course objectives to service-learning outcomes and develop an actionable implementation plan. *Analyze Case Studies from existing first-year engineering service-learning programs, identifying best practices and potential pitfalls. *Collaborate with Peers to address common challenges and brainstorm solutions tailored to their institutional contexts.

The session will incorporate structured discussions, guided planning exercises, and collaborative problem-solving activities to ensure participants leave with concrete next steps. By the end of this workshop, participants will leave with a structured framework and practical strategies to implement meaningful service-learning experiences that enhance student engagement and community impact.

This workshop is suitable for educators from diverse institutional backgrounds—whether they are new to service learning or looking to refine existing programs—and will provide actionable strategies grounded in educational research and real-world implementation.

Schulte Grahame, K., & O'Connell, B. P., & Shea, A., & Gallagher, K. (2025, July), Workshop: Integrating Service Learning into First-Year Engineering Courses: A Hands-On Workshop Paper presented at FYEE 2025 Conference, University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--55289

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2025 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015