The recent COVID-19 outbreak has severely impacted chemistry curriculums. The need for social distancing, hybrid and remote learning, and the reduction of resources has created a necessity for educators to redesign their pedagogical approaches. We have identified a versatile service-learning project that engages students in chemistry, complements laboratory activities and enhances students' soft skills. During the project, students in a non-majors chemistry course and an upper level majors course presented a science activity to elementary students using Google Meets. Using Google Meets to deliver the STEM activity to elementary school students enabled the college students to participate in the project regardless of their learning modality, in-person, hybrid or remote. The structure of the service-learning project enabled the elementary school students to participate in the activities irrespective of their learning modality. The initial response from the college students that presented the activities has been overwhelmingly positive. The majority of the students found that the project helped improve their soft skills and helped them gain a greater understanding of the chemistry concepts being presented in the activity. Lastly, the project afforded the students an opportunity to give back to the community while enriching their chemistry knowledge.

Service-learning for a multiple learning modality environment

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.