Proposal for the design of a professional practice program for geology and mining engineering students through a community outreach project

Community engagement projects for engineering students' learning are crucial in skill and knowledge development. While Universities are committed to training engineering professionals to respond to social demands based on their abilities and acquired knowledge, it is well known that current interest in studying careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas is not as high as in other specialty areas. Therefore, it is crucial to generate instances that promote interest in these areas at an early age while children are attending school. Our motivation is to propose a professional practice structure for Geology and Mining Engineering students to realize how they may impact society through their skills and knowledge acquired while at college. It is also essential to evaluate the impact of this type of project in the community through stakeholders' opinions of children in K-12 school education. The participants were four undergraduate geology and mining engineering students who worked collaboratively to design and implement four workshops: 1) Geomechanics, 2) Paleontology, 3) Ocean Circulation, and 4) Mineralogy. Professors supervised professional practice students from the geology, mining engineering, and STEM research education areas. The present paper address on a qualitative level the motivations that prompted participating professional practice students to get involved in a Community Engagement Project; their experiences regarding the design and implementation of the workshops; the perceptions of their performance during the workshops, and; the impact that the realization of this professional practice may have had on their engineering studies. In addition, we report the effect that STEM content workshops outside of traditional student/teacher classes had on stakeholder groups to support and increase understanding, awareness, and interest in STEM disciplines. Finally, we describe how these findings may inform the design and structure of professional practices focusing on Community Engagement Projects in engineering areas.