A Second Look at the LoDo Project: An Experiment to Increase Student Engagement by Integrating Community Needs into the Classroom

• In Event: Service Learning & Community Engagement in Criminology Courses

Abstract

Our goal was to use community engagement to increase student learning. By using a current local criminal issue our hope was to engage our Research Methods students into a real community problem. Recent Denver news media reported that violence in the lower downtown area (Lodo) has increased, culminating in the death of a Buckley Air Corpsman on July 13th, 2013. The students used the increase of crime in Lodo to create research projects involving overall city crime levels along with assessing other factors contributing to the violence. Students were given pre and post course exams along with a survey on attitudes concerning team work. This presentation will talk about the implementation, assessment, and results of student and community integration

Authors

• Denise L. Mowder, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• LiYing Li, Metropolitan State University of Denver