Podcast Highlights STEM and Service-Learning

Posted by The California State University on December 10, 2019

In this Higher Ed Rewired podcast episode, titled A Brighter Future – Students Build and Deliver Solar Power, Erik Helgren a physics professor at Cal State East Bay co-teaches the solar suitcase class which introduces students to careers in STEM, engages students to work alongside K-12 in peer-led service-learning projects and address energy needs across the globe. “They [students] want to know how to be able to solve problems. And through the active learning, they get so much more engaged…and as they are learning by doing they are also then learning about how solar technology is a solution to today’s energy problems.”

Professor Helgren says that offering these classes earlier could help solve a known problem in science education: the leaky pipeline, a phenomenon where students start out excited by science and math but eventually drop away.

For this podcast and others in the series go here: https://www2.calstate.edu/higher-ed-rewired or subscribe to Higher Ed Rewired on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.