Leeann Snell-Burke, Ph.D.

Service Learning Course(s):

• Step 1: Inquiry approaches to Teaching
  (SCIE 1201)
• Teaching Science & Health In early elementary
   Education

“It (Service Learning) should benefit the community and it should benefit Higher Ed. You can’t stay separated and do that. You’re going to have to come back and forth and bridge the gap."

Dr. LeeAnn Snell-Burke became interested in service learning because of an experience she had working as a high school microbiology teacher. One of her brightest students came to her and said she was having some trouble understanding the material, but was doing exceptionally at her part-time job working at a veterinary clinic. Wanting to help her student, Dr. Snell-Burke allowed the student to use the material she learned from the clinic in her classroom, and the student began to improve. This experience taught her the value of hands-on teaching methods, and opened her eyes to the possibility that there were other students that would also benefit from a similar experience.

When Dr. Snell-Burke came to UTA, she was introduced to service learning and realized this was the method she was using with her high school students. As a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Snell-Burke has been able to utilize everything the Center for Service Learning has available to ensure that she is able to create the best learning experience for her students. She has partnered with Fort Worth ISD, Mansfield ISD, Arlington ISD, as well as several charter schools that have allowed her student to being teaching in classrooms as early as their first semester. Her students do a semester at elementary level, a semester at junior level, and a semester at high school level before they do their student teaching. This ensures that Dr. Snell-Burke’s students know for a fact that they will be ready to teach and give students at the lower levels the opportunity to learn from fellow students.

Dr. Snell-Burke advises faculty interested in service learning to be open to other teaching approaches. She believes that professors have to be creative and get students interested in trying something new in order for them to truly benefit from the experience.