Community-Based and Community-Engaged Learning Courses

Housing is a basic human need that affects your mental and physical health, education and employment opportunities, and access to resources, but our laws often treat it as a commodity and an instrument of exclusion. This course will provide an introduction to the laws that directly affect low-income tenants in Philadelphia. We will examine, among other things, evictions and other forms of displacement, the government systems and officials that create and enforce - or fail to enforce - the laws, and how Philadelphia tenants are organizing for change. This class is open to community residents as a Side-By-Side course.

In Philadelphia, food insecurity -- lacking reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food -- affects about one in six families. Rooted in structural inequity, land dispossession, and environmental racism, this condition has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: studies indicate that among children the rate is closer to one in three. Although numerous programs address food and land insecurity at the individual or neighborhood level, few situate cultural preservation as their guiding framework. Fewer still place community agriculture at the center of their practice, and the pathway not just toward security, but sovereignty. In this course, we examine the root causes of food and land insecurity in our city and engage directly with community agriculture projects in Black and Latinx neighborhoods dedicated to fighting it. This three-credit side-by-side community-based course (Drexel students and Philadelphia residents learning together) can be supplemented by an optional 1-credit weeklong follow-on travel component to Puerto Rico.

Can a film change the world? In Environmental Advocacy and Film, we will discover how filmmakers and activists use the medium of the moving image to explore and create change with their work. During class we'll watch films including documentaries, scripted features and shorts that cover local and global environmental issues. Each week a guest will join us to talk about the film we've viewed and the subject it covers. Students will help to moderate these weekly discussions, design and implement survey instruments to assess each film's impact, and participate in a class-wide engagement project by the end of the term. The course is co-taught by a film professor and a climate scientist and is cross-listed with Pennoni Honors College.

Digital Cultural Heritage is a growing transdisciplinary pursuit having components in academic research and applied situations, commercial applications, as well as new media technology development. This class will investigate Digital Cultural Heritage¿s position within the tradition of digital media discourse, potential research issues, interdisciplinary collaborations, emerging best practices and project development.

Focusing on current social issues, students will explore the history and legacy of a particular social issue and learn from those working to change it. Students will write to reflect on the dimensions of change, practice with professional genres, and gather support to address the issue. This is a side-by-side, community-based learning course. Drexel students will work alongside staff from UESF, a Philadelphia organization committed to a holistic, preventive, and cost-efficient approach to assisting vulnerable families impacted by housing crises. On Mondays, the class will meet on Drexel's campus. On Wednesdays, the class will meet off-campus at the organizational partner's conference room.

This course provides interdisciplinary students with the opportunity to collaborate and learn how to design innovative solutions catering to older users. Through field trips to local immigrant communities, guest speakers from diverse backgrounds, and VR simulations in the health research lab, students will focus on developing the skills necessary to generate creative solutions that meet the needs of age-friendly communities, healthcare systems, and universities. The winning team will receive seed funding to pursue commercialization at the Baiada Institute, with space and mentoring support.

In this interdisciplinary seminar course, students will collaborate with community members and local experts to create a series of Playful Learning interventions in the East Parkside Community of Philadelphia. Design teams will focus on developing Playful Learning initiatives for multiple sites, fostering intergenerational interaction and enriching children’s cognitive and social development in the public spaces they encounter every day. Through assigned readings, lectures, community meetings and design charrettes students will acquire essential skills in community engagement, teamwork, inclusive design and placemaking. Additionally, grant funding has been secured in partnership with Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network, Watchdog and Drexel University, which will lead to the realization of some of the projects. For those interested, students also will have the chance to continue their involvement by participating in construction documentation and implementation activities for academic credit.

Too often elected officials appear to ignore or distrust scientific knowledge when making public policy. What can people who care about facts do to make sure that policy makers use the best available knowledge to inform their decisions? This course will examine social science research on why science is--and isn’t--taken up in public policy. Based on these findings, students will generate a list of Dos and Don’ts for experts who want to influence policy, and will identify concrete steps they can take to increase the impact of their expertise.