UC San Diego

This dissertation project designed, implemented, and measured the efficacy of Transformative Experience teaching methods in Community-Engaged contexts to help students connect with and apply their scientific knowledge in their daily lives. The Transformative Experience framework connects class ideas to everyday experiences by scaffolding students’ personal connections to the science content. These connections help learners overcome emotional and motivational barriers to learning and inspire students to recognize the ways they can use science in their day-to-day lives. Community-engaged learning is a broader category of hands-on activities in which students learn how course content is related to the local community and undertake authentic practices to help serve a community goal. Both methodologies were designed to help students bridge the divide between “coursework” and “real life” that often prevents students from transferring the ideas learned in class to relevant real-world situations. This is especially important as our society increasingly must make important decisions about science-related phenomena, such as personal health choices, voting, or environmental decisions. Although these research-based teaching strategies have demonstrated efficacy in promoting students’ perceptions of their connections to course content and the application of their knowledge in the real world, they have yet to be used in tandem within the context of undergraduate education. This study fills a gap in the literature, while exploring methodologies that have been shown to promote positive student outcomes, particularly in underserved populations participating in STEM such as women, first-generation students, and minoritized groups. Using a mixed-methods observational study approach, student surveys and written reflective assignments provided quantitative and qualitative evidence for this project. Results demonstrated that combining these methods is effective in fostering students’ recognition and application of science ideas in their daily lives. The results indicated that these methods are also fruitful in promoting personal connections. However, the project was unsuccessful in promoting social connections to the science content. The limitations for promoting social connections are discussed, with recommendations for reflection activities and hands-on activities for enhancing student engagement with the communal and social value of STEM.