Aligning Goals Of Capstone Design, Service Learning, And Adapted Physical Activity

Given that senior capstone design courses are critical elements in achieving important undergraduate engineering education outcomes and that universities are increasingly emphasizing a humanitarian component in institutional-level outcomes, we posit service learning pedagogy is well suited to accomplish both. In this paper, we describe the integration of service learning projects into existing senior level mechanical, computer and multidisciplinary senior design classes. These projects focus on the design, building and testing of adapted physical activity devices to allow greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in recreational activities. Adaptive physical activity projects are well-aligned with the goals of service learning and provide rich open-ended design experiences for students. This paper provides a framework for aligning capstone and service learning outcomes.