Blue Planet Journey

For over two decades, my students were involved in " service-learning " projects. Service-learning goes by a number of monikers, but I like this label. It links learning explicitly with community engagement. For 5 years, I was USU's Service-Learning Coordinator , and I used service-learning to get, as scholar Barbara Jacoby wrote, "... students engaged in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes." My primary service-learning (SL) course was ENVS 3600, Living with Wildlife, although I taught other SL courses as well. The syllabus provided this information to students: Service-­learning is an educational experience for students that meets community needs while assisting students with gaining a better understanding of the course content. It puts the course content into perspective in ways that cannot be accomplished in the classroom. You will also have to r...

  USU faculty member  Scot Allgood directs incoming Connections students in a service-learning project at Hyrum State Park. Utah State University took service-learning to a new level in developing an academic Service-Learning Scholars program in 2004 and hiring a faculty Service-Learning Coordinator in 2005 (me). As with other campuses, the development of an official service-learning program did not “invent” community-based teaching and research at USU.  A significant number of our faculty already had been incorporating some form of service-learning in their courses, integrating course content with community action and reflection.  USU students on a spring service trip preparing a pond for taro planting in Hawaii. As I matured as a university professor, I shifted over time to a problem-based learning pedagogy, and was introduced to a refined version at a campus workshop on “service-learning” sponsored by a coalition of students, faculty, and administrators.  I ...

Covid-19 continued its march across Utah, the US, and the world. We relaxed in Logan, gardening, reading, running, and (Caroline) playing ukulele. I retired officially from USU on 1 July, after 29 years. That milestone certainly was a casualty of the novel coronavirus. No goodbyes, no celebration, no congratulations. No mingling with colleagues, and no opportunity to reminisce. Not even a card!  Luckily, I have a thoughtful family, who brought balloons, chocolate cake, and a bottle of wine. Then, we went to feed the ducks! It gave me a better sense of what was being missed across the world... graduations, marriage celebrations, reunions, and even funerals attended by more than close family. In my case, there will be no "make-up" retirement party. At USU, I was there one day, and not the ne xt. Close out the lab and the office, and my 29-year history passed into oblivion. Remember the adage, nobody on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time at the office....