MAY I HELP YOU?

MORE AND MORE, ENGINEERING SCHOOLS ARE LOOKING TO SERVICE LEARNING AS A WAY TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE CHALLENGES OF THE REAL WORLD.

The classic image of an engineer has always been that of a quiet man, most times with glasses and a pocket protector, tucked away in a corner, furiously working on a design for a new bridge or electrical system. But the modern version of how engineers actually work, of course, is completely different: They often operate in teams, with engineers and non-engineers alike, collaborating on projects and communicating regularly with clients.

THIS NEW MODEL WAS recognized by engineering educators in 2000, when they put in place updated accreditation standards that called for students not only to have a background in mathematics and science but also to have the skills to effectively communicate in a group and work with colleagues from across academic disciplines. In other words, future engineers had to learn in much the same way that they would eventually have to work in the real world.

Putting those statements into accreditation standards was the easy part. Figuring out how to squeeze more requirements for undergraduate engineering majors into an already-packed curriculum would turn out to be a challenge. To be sure, most engineering students had professional internships at some point during their college careers, and many institutions required a project as part of a capstone course. But each of those experiences had its limits. Internships were for a short amount of time and rarely enabled even those students who were given the opportunity to apply their skills a chance to see a project from start to finish. And the assignments in senior-level courses never brought students in contact with real-life clients. Something more was needed.

The answer: service learning. The concept is simple. Working in a team, undergraduates learn real-world skills by defining, designing, building and testing engineering solutions that assist local nonprofit community organizations and sometimes government agencies. Service learning in engineering has proved to be a winwin situation for both sides of the equation. The students learn the additional "soft" skills they need for their careers-teamwork, communication, project management and customer service. Meanwhile, the community groups get the technical expertise that they need but for which they lack the staff and funds.

With service learning, "students see engineering as more than just a set of math problems," says William C. Oakes, an associate professor of engineering education at Purdue University. "They see it as a means to change people's lives, see career paths they didn't see before in nonprofits, and the compelling nature of the projects helps students take more risks than they would have otherwise."

Oakes also serves as interim director of Purdue's service-learning program, Engineering Projects in Community Service. Known by its acronym EPICS, it was started at Purdue in 1995 and since then has enrolled more than 2,000 students. With support from the National Science Foundation and several corporations, the model has expanded to 15 other universities today, including Butler, Columbia and Pennsylvania State University, among others. While EPICS is the most recognized service-learning model in engineering, it is not the only one. Indeed, a growing number of engineering departments now require service learning as part of the curriculum or at least offer it as an elective.

POPULAR WITH WOMEN

BESIDES ITS ABILITY to meet accreditation standards by teaching teamwork and communication skills, one of the biggest reasons that service learning is expanding is that engineering educators are beginning to see a key side benefit to the programs: They are popular with women, a group typically not drawn to engineering.

At Purdue, for instance, female mechanical engineering majors, as well as those in electrical and cemputer engineering, accounted for 20 percent of thesterdents in EPICS over a five-year period while they made up only about 11 percent of the students in those majors. In the first three years of EPICS, when one-fifth-of the students in the program were women, they were nearly one-third of the team leaders. Other universities report similar successes with attracting women and, to a similar extent, minority students. As a result, many highlight their service-learning programs in recruiting materials.

Why does service learning do well in enrolling a group of students that so many-ether efforts have failed to engage? "The explanation," says Valerie Leppert, associate professor of engineering at the University of California at Merced, "is that it shows the humanside of engineering. In other words, they get to see how people in the community are benefiting from the engineering "services they provide."

Leppert directs the EPICS program at the Merced campus, which opened last fall and is the first new American research university in the 21st century. That gave the nascent engineering school a chance to build a curriculum from the ground up, free of all the requirements that develop over time at other universities and often inhibit new programs like service learning from gaining a foothold. Privately, some engineering professors say they fear that making service learning a requirement will take away from the time undergraduates have to devote to other endeavors, namely helping out with research or participating in other departmental activities. What's more, faculty members are often tapped to serve as advisers on service-learning projects.