Abstract:

The challenges of today’s world imply the need for an adaptation of existing learning and teaching approaches to the new complex, multidisciplinary, multicultural problems engineers will have to solve in tomorrow’s world. Engineering Service Learning is an approach that students to develop practical technical and professional skills in real-life context. This paper presents a service-learning program conducted in Morocco, the “Smile project”, which is a part of the “Beyond Engineering Education” (BEE) program, aiming service through engineering [1]. The project Smile, running BEE platform, aims to make local people smile based on technical support through solving local issues, while educating at the same time engineering students to have a service mind. The students follow an engineering process, that can be found in [2], aided by a student guidebook. The roles are distributed among team members and the manager of the team supports the work of all team members all over the project. Since 2009, PNU has been running engineering service learning projects in Indonesia and since 2015 also in Morocco.

Smile project Morocco counts four editions as follows.
- Smile Project 2015 in the Village Mogress near El Jadida, in 21 ~28 January 2016. It involved 20 students from Morocco and Korea, divided into 4 teams. The teams chose to make wooden house in a kindergarden, to renew an old traditional shower, to improve classroom condition and to make a marketing strategy for a women embroidery association.
- Smile Project 2016 from 8 to 15 July 2016 in Farsioua village near Tangier. 21 students divided into 4 teams were involved, in addition to 4 managers from Morocco, Korea and Spain, and 4 staff. The teams worked to fix a road, construct a bunch, make a chimney and make a movable shelf.
- Smile Project 2017 in Ben Smime, a village next to Ifrane city, from July 22nd to august 2nd 2017. 26 students from Korea, Morocco and Spain participated in this program and were divided into 4 teams. They worked to improve sales in a handmade carpet factory, to fix and improve a water fountain, to improve visibility and sales of a plants cooperative, and to enhace studying conditions in a Quranic school.
- Smile Project 2018 held near El Jadida, in El Haouzia commune, from 3 to 13 July 2018. It involves 20 students from Korea and Morocco, in addition to 4 managers and 4 staff. Two of the teams are working in a kinder garden, while the two others are working in a women association teaching women how to make traditional clothes. The teams in the kinder garden worked on making two educational toys for children while the two teams in women, association worked on learning tools for women.

This paper presents and compares the editions of Smile projects and its organization, as well as the outcomes of the project. The outcomes are presented through the process that the students have to follow during its realization. It shows the effectiveness of such approach in developing technical and non-technical skills of the students in a sustainable context.

References:
[1] BEE Story Newsletter 2016 vol. 9, Pusan National University
[2] Project BEE: Concept and Model for Service Learning in Engineering, Young Bong Seo, Jiin Eom, O-Kaung Lim, The 4th International Research Symposium on Problem-Based Learning (IRSPBL) 2013

Keywords:

Engineering Service Learning, Smile Project, ENSAJ, PNU.