What happens when STEM meets community? Magic, it turns out. In Fall 2024, Duke Service-Learning's event series, "STEM + Community Engagement: Pedagogy and Practice," brought together faculty who are reimagining how we teach and learn STEM. From engineering students designing adaptive technology for children, to medical students transforming postpartum care, these faculty are demonstrating how community engagement makes STEM education more powerful, inclusive, and transformative.
At Pratt's School of Engineering, Michael Rizk is revolutionizing first-year engineering education. Through the First Year Design program, he connects classroom learning with community impact from day one. Rizk teaches the service-learning course, EGR 101L: Engineering Design and Communication. Below, he describes how working with community partners helps students see engineering not just as technical problem-solving, but as a powerful tool for creating positive change in people's lives.
On Moving Beyond Traditional Engineering Education
"I was an engineering undergraduate, and I don't think I got much of a sense for what engineering was. Students are taking lots of math courses, science courses, these foundational courses that are extremely important, but often they don't get exposed to engineering, and don't really get a sense for what they're getting themselves into until maybe another year or 2 into the curriculum."
On Engineering in the Real World
"If you go back a few decades ago, engineering is really focused on the technical skills - the math, the equations, and things like that. And again, those are important, but I think it's now pretty clear that for engineers to actually do meaningful work and solve meaningful problems, they need to be more than just technically gifted, technically skilled. They have to be able to interact with people. They have to understand the world around them."
"I think it's now pretty clear that for engineers to actually do meaningful work and solve meaningful problems, they need to be more than just technically gifted, technically skilled. They have to be able to interact with people. They have to understand the world around them."
On Finding Meaningful Projects
"We look for real world problems that clients actually care about, that they don't have a solution for. What would make your life better? What bothers you? What hinders you on a day to day basis? So our students see that they can actually have an impact and solve a meaningful problem."
On Making Student Learning Priority
"We really prioritize our clients. We are working on arranging transportation and timing for some of our students to go to the North Carolina Zoo next week. So that's going to take a good chunk of time. They're going to miss the entire class period, but it's worth it for them to see that location to interact with and engage with the zookeepers."
On What Makes It All Work
"I can show all these numbers, but really, it's the first-year students who make this work. They're excited, they're willing to jump in, they're talented, they're creative, and they're the ones who make things work."
