Promoting science literacy through Research Service-Learning, an emerging pedagogy with significant benefits for students, faculty, universities, and communities

Research service-learning (RSL) is an emerging pedagogy in which students engage in research within a service-learning context. This approach has great potential to promote science literacy because it teaches students how to use scientific knowledge and scientific ways of thinking in the service of society, and gives students a greater appreciation of the strengths and limitations of the scientific method. We used RSL to promote science literacy in an introductory course for non-majors, Conservation Biology of the Eno River. In this paper, we describe RSL, explain how we used it to design this course, and describe some lessons learned from the experience. We also describe the benefits of this approach for students, faculty, the community, and universities. Our hope is to provide science educators with another useful strategy for promoting science literacy.

Duke Scholars

Author Jennifer Ahern Dodson Thompson Writing Program

Author Julie Reynolds Biology