Merced County
UC Merced's first service-learning team was assembled in the summer of 2004. The team's first client was Castle Science and Technology Center (CSTC), located at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California.
The Center houses a number of exhibits and also holds classes related to science and technology education. The target audience is middle-school children, who may attend with their families on a walk-in basis or as part of a school field trip.
The majority of middle schools in the local geographical area take a field trip to CSTC each year as a part of their science curriculum. The team was comprised of five students in total, including a student supervisor. Two students had just graduated from local high schools, one of them planning on attending Merced College in the fall, the other Fresno State.
The challenge faced by the service-learning team was to increase visitor attendance to the museum. The team interviewed the client representatives as to their specific needs and identified several possible solutions. Of the solutions proposed in written and oral reports by the team, the client chose to construct a new exhibit to draw visitors into the museum. This exhibit was a Rube Goldberg-inspired device that can display several concepts of physics.
Upon completion, the device was unveiled in a ribbon-cutting ceremony which was attended by local government officials, museum board members, university representatives, and the general public.
