Historically, high levels of self-reported stress, anxiety, and depression are quite common among STEM students. Unfortunately, after multiple semesters of disrupted education due to COVID-19, these mental struggles among students, especially first-year (freshmen) undergraduate engineering students, have only been exacerbated. To mitigate these…

An active service-learning research work is conducted in the field of advanced environmental chemistry. Multiple projects are assigned to students, which promote individual learning skills, self-confidence as scientists, and a deep understanding of the environmental chemist's profession.