Teaching Down to Earth —Service-Learning Methodology for Science Education and Sustainability at the University Level: A Practical Approach

: The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education area require the application of new active methodologies in the classroom that place the student at the center of his or her learning process. In the present work, we analyze the application of a Service-Learning (SL) methodology in the context of a Final Degree Dissertation (FDD) in the degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Extremadura (Spain). The project deals with an isolated Kichwa community in Ecuador and involves the development of alternative science education materials for the capacitation of in-service science teachers. This paper evaluates how an FDD carried out according to Service-Learning (SL) principles can help in the acquisition of so-called “soft skills” and how these can be focused in the promotion of the sustainable development goal (SDG) knowledge and achievement. To this end, a qualitative study of the experience and a deep evaluation, followed by a ﬁnal reﬂection, were carried out. According to the preliminary results, we can conclude that Higher Education should include SDGs in its teaching praxis and could do this successfully using the SL methodology.


Introduction
The need for more novel and practical methodologies in science education has become a reality. In addition, sustainability as a knowledge objective (linked to many other transversal competences in Higher Education) is becoming commonplace. This article is the result of merging these two realities.
The current work is structured as follows: 1. An introduction where the theoretical background of sustainability (Sustainable Development Goals, Sumak Kawsay, and other paradigms for education sustainability) is presented as the first approach. Then, practical and applied educational methodologies are also explained, including the Service-Learning (SL) methodology.
2. Second, the experience of SL itself is presented and described. 3. Then, SL experience is analyzed and evaluated to check whether it helps the promotion of sustainability (in a wide sense) and transversal competences. received criticism from different viewpoints. Some authors experience limitations because they steer away from measuring superior capacities, such as the transfer of knowledge or argumentation. Others authors criticized that the most outstanding element of the LOMCE (Spanish education legislative framework) [49] model is its return to mandatory assessments to complete this stage, similar to those deleted in obsolete laws [50].
Service-Learning (SL) is one of the so-called active education methods [51,52]. Others include Problem-Based Learning (PBL) [13,53,54], Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) [55], Gamification [56], Flipped Classroom [57], or Game-Based Learning (GBL) [58]. These methods are based on the idea that students will learn better if they directly apply their knowledge to improve real-life situations. For this, activities inside the community must be designed to overcome challenges under the perspective of social justice [59]. SL cannot be considered without the active participation of students in service, meeting actual community needs with a reflexive exercise afterwards [60]. SL promotes the discovery of being competent by being useful to others [59].
SL offers a large variety of configurations. Under the SL umbrella there are different levels of engagement and different methods of participation, from volunteer experience to project learning, applied to specific situations inside a community [61].
Compared to other educative methods, such as those referenced above, the link to reality, practical reciprocal exchange with partners, and the didactically supported reflection of theory and practice are specifically important in SL. SL contributes to the development of self-efficacy and leadership skills, which are related to entrepreneurial strategic management and action competence. In this way, students develop skills at the same time they learn academic knowledge. Obviously, students feel positive emotions when their studies deal with "the real world" and not a mere theoretical conceptualization [62].
Although SL facilitates many ways of carrying out the experience, it needs to be based on a contextually located community (at a large or small scale), which makes the students handle real and unique situations. The objective of SL is to find a feasible solution within the specific needs of a context [62].
It is important to note that SL is not a voluntary service, practice, or internship. It is also remarkable that SL must be a guided, course-based activity and not an isolated action as an extracurricular voluntary service. In addition, the output of SL involves not only knowledge content but also experience that fulfills the meaning of the study itself because students experiment with the applicability and validity of their studies. SL is much more than practice and internships, it is a vital way to experiment with how knowledge (and education) is useful for a specific community-that is, its internal sense [63].
SL promotes several skills that are largely required by employers, so learning via SL could be a reasonable requirement inside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). SL also presents multiple advantages for teachers, such as the promotion of ethics skills, service, and social responsibility, as well as the broad applicability of the contents being taught [62].
However, the implementation of SL is not usually recommended at the university level [48]. Academic programs can also engage students in the community, but the learning objectives of these activities are typically focused only on extending a student's professional skills and do not emphasize the importance of service within the community or lessons of civic responsibility [64].

Closing the Circle: From Sustainability to Service-Learning
From the early years of the sustainability concept [65], it has grown far beyond mere environmental protection. Recently, a reflection on this has been published by Zamora and Sánchez-Martín [17]. In this work, the authors pointed out there is a new and powerful concept of integral ecology, where many academic, social, technological or even religious traditions are merged. As they stated out: "Sustainability has to do, hence, with persons, with ways of life and thereafter with moral and ethical issues." ( [17], p. 3). In the evolution of sustainability as a key concept, the global environmental policies are involved from the beginning [66], but it is not until the appearance of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) [67], when an integral paradigm of sustainability, human development, and citizenship implications was built up, although with many inconsistencies [68][69][70]. The standard evolution of MDG drove us to the SDG, which is characterized as a feasible framework to teach sustainability at University [17].

Why Is the Implementation of this Methodology Appropriate in this Case?
The application of the Service-Learning methodology in this case is particularly suitable because of its curricular context, because of its possibility to develop SDGs (including knowledge of Good Living) for its potential to promote the skills required for a graduate in environmental sciences and because it has real-world implications, in which students can see that what they do is useful and relevant.

Objectives, Aims, and Planning of the Current Work
According to the preceding sections, our working hypothesis is the following one: Hypothesis 1 (H1). SL can be a useful tool for promoting SDGs and Good Living during university degrees.
Subsequently, our objective is to confirm the following working hypothesis: Hypothesis 2 (H2). To use Service-Learning, as an active-based learning methodology, for achieving SDG comprehension, understanding, and promotion among university students.
To do this, we consider a real SL experience and analyze it under the principles of evaluation, reflection, and celebration [74]. In a graphical way, Figure 1 can easily condense the multiple implications we have pointed out previously.
Sustainability 2020, 12, 542 5 of 23 In the evolution of sustainability as a key concept, the global environmental policies are involved from the beginning [66], but it is not until the appearance of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) [67], when an integral paradigm of sustainability, human development, and citizenship implications was built up, although with many inconsistencies [68][69][70]. The standard evolution of MDG drove us to the SDG, which is characterized as a feasible framework to teach sustainability at University [17].

Why is the Implementation of this Methodology Appropriate in this Case?
The application of the Service-Learning methodology in this case is particularly suitable because of its curricular context, because of its possibility to develop SDGs (including knowledge of Good Living) for its potential to promote the skills required for a graduate in environmental sciences and because it has real-world implications, in which students can see that what they do is useful and relevant.

Objectives, Aims, and Planning of the Current Work
According to the preceding sections, our working hypothesis is the following one:

Hypothesis 1 (H1). SL can be a useful tool for promoting SDGs and Good Living during university degrees.
Subsequently, our objective is to confirm the following working hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2 (H2).
To use Service-Learning, as an active-based learning methodology, for achieving SDG comprehension, understanding, and promotion among university students.
To do this, we consider a real SL experience and analyze it under the principles of evaluation, reflection, and celebration [74]. In a graphical way, Figure 1 can easily condense the multiple implications we have pointed out previously.   Consequently, this article presents an experience of SL linked to SDG promotion. This experience consisted in the design of adapted botanical didactic units (see below for further details) that were mailed to Canelo-Kichwa communities in Ecuador.

Ecuador-Spain-Ecuador: A Sandwich Project
This piece of research is part of a wider project, which includes not only the mise en scene of a particular experience. The current work is the middle part of an analyze-reflect-act project that begun with field activities in Bobonaza's valley (where the need was identified) and will continue with the impact evaluation of the combined actions in the Spanish local university and in Ecuador. That phase of the project is already on going and results will be available promptly.

Method
This paper addresses a SL experience that was also used as a research-action activity. This is why this method is different from that of other pure-research works. The following sections describe how this experience was carried out.
SL is a very useful methodology if one aims to improve active learning in any curricular context. However, we think it is especially interesting and fruitful when dealing with environmental issues (such as an Environmental Studies Degree; the study case) because (a) it allows one to work with multiple environmental concerns and promote the understanding of many environmental contents (scientific issues), (b) it allows the ethical development of the students, and (c) it promotes critical thinking of the link between a) and (b). Based on current experience, as will be shown afterwards, this methodology facilitated the study of botanicals (species, vegetal biology, population ecology, etc.) and the implications they have within the social community (Canelo-Kichwa indigens). In addition, the ethical dimension is achieved by SDGs and Sumak Kawsay promotion.  Table A1 (Appendix A), framed as a process of action-research [75,76].

Context of the FDD
The FDD consisted of an SL activity designed around the abovementioned Aramburuzabala Protocol. It was developed in coordination with an indigenous community from the Ecuatorian Amazon and was an environmental educational project designed in Spain under the amazonic perspective (and was field-tested afterward). It was based on the needs of the Kichwa community's teachers from an area where the population has a high illiteracy rate but a perfect traditional knowledge of Sumak Kawsay-Good Living [77].
This project started between 2013 and 2017, during the investigation of PhD student C.X. Luzuriaga [77]. The directors of the PhD thesis (T.R.-T. and J.B.-S.) learned the necessity for didactic material to teach sciences in the sociocultural context of the community based on part of the community (teachers and students) when they were there engaging in botanical studies. The researchers felt the need to improve this situation. This project was ultimately proposed to be developed as the Final Degree Dissertation (FDD) for a pre-graduate student (M.H.-B.). This FDD was publicly defended in September of 2017. Two years later (2019), after some time for reflection and diffusion, the authors feel prepared to share this experience with the scientific community. The starting project's kick-off point was a workshop held at Sarayaku. This workshop was conducted by Luzuriaga alongside young people from the Kichwa amazonian community during her PhD fieldwork. Community members were asked about plant uses and their importance in Canelo-Kichwa cosmovision. Finally, they selected the most important 20 species for the community. These 20 species were then selected as the focus of the FDD work and SL project. An in-depth study was carried out to elaborate 20 botanical fact sheets described in the results section. The creation of these sheets provided a valuable botanical apprenticeship itself for the FDD pre-graduate student.
In addition to this, the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education of Ecuador for Natural Sciences (Biology and Plant Sciences) [78] was carefully examined in order to determine and meet the requirements and competences that must be achieved by Basic Superior and High Level students (12-17 years old) of the Intercultural Bilingual Kichwa Education System [79]. Indigenous students are allowed access to the university. However, it is quite difficult to achieve all competences and achieve the same academic success as students who come from the city due to the conditions in which they live.
The principal aim of the FDD was to create didactic material adapted to social conditions described in the Background of the Appendix A Protocol. Applying the SL methodology should achieve every learning objective included in the curriculum of the Environmental Sciences Degree [80]. In addition, it could be possible to engage in interdisciplinary work by integrating different curricular areas. This was accomplished by developing special kinds of knowledge (not just concepts): skills, ethoi, and capacities [35].
Previous research [77] has shown that some botanical practices are unique in this indigenous community. These practices were never registered and could offer significant progress in various medical fields [81]. Conservation of this traditional knowledge must be taken into account [82] and is a priority according to several international agreements [83]. Perhaps the first milestone is given by the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), [84] (p. 10) in which the UN included the following text: Article 13.1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
Traditional knowledge must, therefore, be cared for. This idea was taken into consideration when the Service Objective of the present SL project was developed.

FDD Evaluation
FDD analysis and evaluation were made by using a specific rubric, a modification from Rovira, García, and Serrano [85], summarized in Table 1. A rubric is an evaluation tool that synthetically shows the precise quantitative and qualitative criteria to be evaluated [86]. A rubric consists of assigning an objective score according to the criteria being evaluated. The use of rubrics gives a student continuous feedback for his or her leaning process [87]. Table 1. Evaluation rubric for SL. Source: [88]. Learning objectives The source of learning is placed in a research activity, linked to the curriculum and to a relationship with community service. All objectives have been achieved through interdisciplinary work.
Learning plan and different activities are clearly linked to service. Their acquisition favors the better quality of the intervention. Some learning objectives were achieved.
Service is not clearly distinguished in the learning programme, although this plan is well-designed. Some objectives were achieved partially.
No plan is designed for learning, no activities are scheduled, and learning is acquired informally. All objectives were achieved. Service objectives Service was completely covered. Obtaining a long-term service made up of complex tasks that the participants themselves must design to solve a problem that demands creativity and involvement.
Service was achieved by obtaining service of a long duration that allows the acquisition of experience and skills in the accomplishment of tasks of notable complexity, whose accomplishment supposes a high exigency and some other implications.
Achieved through repetitive tasks and/or easy to learn, whose implementation involves moderate demands and involvement.
Not achieved, simple tasks with a low degree of implications.

Requirements
Real needs are discovered by participants through a collective research project in which they carry out work that critically examines reality.
The participants decide on the needs upon which they want to act through the analysis of different problems and choosing one of them. Educators accompany them.
Educators and/or social entities decide on the needs upon which to perform the service without consulting the participants.
No need-identification is carried out; needs are merely put into the project without reflection or research activity.

Purpose of Service
Although a need is identified by participants, they also are aware of the political implications of the specific situation.
Service responds to the needs of the community whose social dimensions the participants are aware of.
Service responds to the needs of the community, although the participants do not always manage to perceive political and social implications.
Service does not start from a detected need, from which the participants do not perceive its social dimension.
Evaluation of the SL activity The participants with the educator actively intervene in different moments of the process for the preparation and application of a competency evaluation plan.
An evaluation plan is carried out. Objectives and other parameters are evaluated, and the project's outcome defines the accreditation of the participants.
Educators limit themselves to verifying the achievement of certain general learning objectives without defined criteria or indicators that could be accredited.
There is no established evaluation plan, although educators can spontaneously and punctually evaluate and communicate their assessment to participants.

Reflection of the SL activity
Reflection involves participants in a dynamic that promotes new contributions to the community.
Reflection is not only focused in some moments, but also on a specific exercise that allows the visualization of the whole project.
Reflection is programmed but comprises a limited time with no link to the rest of the project.
Reflective activities are not foreseen, nor are areas proposed to promote them, although, in a natural way, these activities can be thought and submitted to debate one's own experience.
Celebration of the SL activity Both parts celebrated the success of service together.
Each part separately celebrated the end of the service.
Only one of the involved parties celebrated the SL.
The SL activity has not been celebrated.

Diffusion of the SL activity
The project was taken to conferences, written, and reflected on through the diffusion.
The project has been taken to conferences without any reflection process.
The project has been written and reflected but not shared.
The SL has not been written or diffused.
According to Table 1, the maximum score is 32 and represents a rate of 10 out of 10. From a graphical point of view, Figure 2 represents an example score obtained once the experience is analyzed. From a graphical point of view, Figure 2 represents an example score obtained once the experience is analyzed. For this SL experience, the score obtained is 28 and represents a rate of 8.75 out of 10. As can be seen in Figure 2, the specific example we are working on in the current paper achieved high marks in some items, such as the Purpose, Service objectives or Reflection. However, the Celebration was poor and may be a challenge for future experiences. The rubric allows us to identify which aspects must be taken into account for improving the experience and the significance of the learning process, as well as to visualize which ones where correctly implemented and retained from the early planning phases.

Results
As Arambuzuzabala [74] recommends, an SL experience must be evaluated according to the seven points included in Figure 3. However, the specific evaluation of this SL experience can be For this SL experience, the score obtained is 28 and represents a rate of 8.75 out of 10. As can be seen in Figure 2, the specific example we are working on in the current paper achieved high marks in some items, such as the Purpose, Service objectives or Reflection. However, the Celebration was poor and may be a challenge for future experiences. The rubric allows us to identify which aspects must be taken into account for improving the experience and the significance of the learning process, as well as to visualize which ones where correctly implemented and retained from the early planning phases.

Results
As Arambuzuzabala [74] recommends, an SL experience must be evaluated according to the seven points included in Figure 3. However, the specific evaluation of this SL experience can be developed descriptively according to the following five subpoints: Learning objectives, Service objectives, reflection, celebration, and diffusion. These are the results of the current experience.
As a result of this work, we obtained real experience of the SL methodology at a higher educational level merged with the academic study and development of specific indigenous knowledge. As Gallardo [89] also noted, this was not a mere anthropological work but also included (a) the interest of the stakeholders and (b) the active learning of the involved students. This experience shows that the inclusion of these kinds of methodologies is quite easy to do it in the context of an Environmental Sciences degree. In this section, we will include the results of each part that must be considered in service learning, referring to learning objectives (a syllabus requirement and the necessity to acquire knowledge), service objectives (that were covered and achieved), a deep reflection (about improvements in learning), a celebration (after finishing the activity), and diffusion (sharing with the scientific community is a way to promote the implementation of this kind of methodology).

Learning Objectives
The learning objectives of this project are presented in Appendix A. As an actual SL project, it required connecting with the environment of the community [39]. Therefore, it was necessary to engage in a complex and in-depth study of the Canelo-Kichwa community, which included different topics, such as geography, biodiversity, costumes, and culture, alongside studying the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education of Ecuador and understanding the important role of culture in achieving sustainability.
The transversal competences included in the academic curricula of the Environmental Science Degree [80] are covered by enabling the student to recognize the ethical dimension of the problems and to comply with a professional code of conduct. The professional deontology of environmentalists includes, for example, an obligation to respect the culture, religion, and customs of the people in the region where the activities are carried out, as expressed in the Nagoya Protocol of the Conference of Parts 2010 of the Biological Diversity Convenion of the United Nations [83].

Service Objectives
Twenty cards were designed and created, as shown in Figure 3a. These cards included the names of botanical species (scientific and vernacular), botanical description of the species, reproductive biology (pollination, seed dispersal), conservation arguments, and elements for innovation.
These fact sheets were designed in order to help teachers perform the activities found in the activity book (Figure 3b is based on the Primary and Secondary Education official curriculum of Ecuador [78]). We designed more than 40 activities adapted to the socioeconomic conditions of the community. Some of them can be found in the Appendix A section.  According to the main principles of SL and cooperation for development, the final outcome of this project (the didactic material) was sent to the community in order to meet the requirement of returning the knowledge extracted to the beneficiaries. This workbook included activities to reinforce adaptation for the Canelo-Kichwa community, with the aim of preserving the customs giving it an identity value.
It is also remarkable that both the flash cards and the workbook are made with the objective of teaching, so they are science education materials. This aligns this project with SDGs since it promotes universal access to education (Goal 4).

Reflection in SL Activity
Some of the competences that UNESCO recommends for graduates are "to achieve open-minded According to the main principles of SL and cooperation for development, the final outcome of this project (the didactic material) was sent to the community in order to meet the requirement of returning the knowledge extracted to the beneficiaries. This workbook included activities to reinforce adaptation for the Canelo-Kichwa community, with the aim of preserving the customs giving it an identity value.
It is also remarkable that both the flash cards and the workbook are made with the objective of teaching, so they are science education materials. This aligns this project with SDGs since it promotes universal access to education (Goal 4).

Reflection in SL Activity
Some of the competences that UNESCO recommends for graduates are "to achieve open-minded perception, trans-cultural understanding and cooperation, ability to feel empathy, sympathy and solidarity, to reflect in a distanced manner on individual and cultural concept" [90]. This kind of experience presents completely different realities to the student, helping them to question their own western lifestyles. Working with indigenous communities is a practical approach to the so-called Sumak Kawsay, a life in harmony with nature, community, and all living creatures [91].
The development of this project was useful to determine the great challenges for teachers to ensure that the training of students living in tropical rural areas is equivalent to the training of urban students. This project can also serve as a resource, to awaken critical thinking within students. In this sense, this project facilitates a reflection on socioeconomic global situation (North-South differences), capitalism's worldwide implications, cultural homogenization, the devaluation of traditional knowledge, and many other issues. On the other hand, this project is focused on a particular service: the idea that everyone should have access to education, thereby highlighting the promotion of the right to universal education.
It has been useful to learn the amount of resources and the enormous possibilities that the jungle offers as a place for biological studies. There are few school resources, such as pencils and pens [77], but there is enough time to engage in one of the most important tasks for science: observation [92]. This area was found to be a paradise for any researcher who wants to understand floral populations and the ecology of populations. This area is rich with many resources (in many cases unknown) worth knowing and exploring [93][94][95].
Working with indigenous communities is useful for dealing with a multitude of ethical issues, as it invites reflection on topics of bioethics and environmental justice [96,97], as well as the right of all human beings to be able to live in a healthy environment [96,98,99] and to be protected from environmental threats [100,101]. Social and economic justice refers to the exploitation of territories and military occupation (which is often exercised with strong repression and violence on indigenous peoples, in order to obtain raw materials and control the territory) [102]. It is also possible to question aspects related to the need to conserve biodiversity [103][104][105] and, at the same time, the importance of research for knowledge and the development of new products to improve the quality of life of human beings [81]. For patents, in the field of ethnobotany, the main beneficiaries are usually pharmaceutical companies, which in many cases take advantage of the botanical knowledge that communities have on the use or application of plants and their components with little or no impact in terms of economic benefits on indigenous communities [106,107].
Finally, to emphasize the importance of the conservation of the indigenous cosmovision, and to revalue traditional knowledge and community values, there is a need to perpetuate knowledge based on personal experience and inquiries of human, who have been known to explore the innumerable resources that nature offers.

Celebration
According to the scarce literature on the steps of a SL project [74], a celebration is the best way to conclude the work done. Preparing and holding a party can be a small project inside a large project [108]. This is usually one of the weak points of a project because of the difficulty of the mobility of a student within the community (Ecuador). The celebration of an SL project shares with the community the work done and the success of the project.

Diffusion of the SL Activity
The diffusion of an SL activity is crucial to give the work prestige and to conclude the experience [109]. In this case, this project has been taken to different conferences and has been proposed for inclusion in a national conference as a resource for awakening vocations to study sciences [110]. ethnobotanical studies could be useful for teachers and help to reduce the abandonment of the study of science that has been taking place in recent decades [111]. Another national conference provided an example of how to integrate ethical competences in the official curricula of higher education. Finally, this project was shared at the II National Conference of Service-Learning [112].

Learning Objectives
This work is an example how to integrate sustainability (understood in a wide sense) in higher education. It includes the following sustainable aspects provided by Tejedor et al. [59] for the Conference of Rectors of the Spanish Universities (CRUE-Sustainability) as recommended measures to promote Sustainability: • Having an integrated approach to knowledge, procedures, attitudes, and values in teaching, as other service-learning project that was already achieved [71].

•
Promoting work in multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams: Students should be taught to realize that complex issues involve moral choices and that information from several disciplines enables them to make more informed decisions. They should feel comfortable in acquiring information from different disciplines, as students will live and work in a world where information from several disciplines must be integrated [74].

•
Stimulating creativity and critical thinking: The learner gains the ability to reflect on own one's values, perceptions, and actions and to take a position in sustainability discourse [18,113,114].

•
Encouraging reflection and self-learning: The learner is able to use all opportunities for their own education throughout their life and to apply the acquired knowledge in everyday situations to promote sustainable development [18]. Thoughtful reflection on the service process is explicitly designed to foster learning and development [90].

•
Reinforcing systemic thinking and a holistic approach: Integrating different knowledges is a main objective.

•
Training participatory and pro-active people who are capable of making responsible decisions: A goal of the SL methodology is to train students in values and transversal competencies, such as participation, social responsibility, entrepreneurship, ethical sense, and solidarity. As students become more experienced with SL, some can assume leadership roles in courses as student assistants and site coordinators and participate in the design and implementation of action research that focuses on needs assessment, program evaluation, and advocacy [63].

•
Acquiring awareness of the challenges posed by globalization: Community SL has the potential to transform student worldviews [61].

•
Promoting respect for diversity and a culture of peace: Indigenous worldviews and practices are a valuable resource for knowledge based on memory with a link to the environment [42].
UNESCO [21] defines the following domains as specific learning objectives for achieving the SDGs: the cognitive domain (comprises knowledge and thinking skills necessary to better understand the SDGs and the challenges in achieving them); the socio-emotional domain (includes social skills that enable learners to collaborate, negotiate, and communicate to promote SDGs, as well as self-reflection skills, values, attitudes, and motivations that enable learners to develop themselves); and the behavioral domain, which describes action competencies. Through this work and SL, it is possible to explore and to develop the three areas mentioned above.

Service Objectives
Education for Good Living proposes that, assuming the complexity of personal reality, dialogue is invited with its own spiritual experience. The spiritual criterion is defended as an integral part of its identity [42]. The objective is to educate people to respect cultural diversity and identity, as well as the right to education in one's native language with content appropriate to each culture [84].
This SL is a consequence of the need to apply the International Agreements of the Nagoya Protocol and the Convention on Biological Diversity [83] after a Doctoral Thesis has been defended [77], the field work of which was carried out in an Amazonian indigenous community in Ecuador. The University of Extremadura needed to comply with environmental legislation. This agreement regulates, inter alia, the sharing of benefits from associated traditional knowledge genetic resources held by indigenous communities, for which UN included explicit text [115] (p. 6): Article 5. FAIR AND EQUITABLE BENEFIT-SHARING 1. In accordance with Article 15, paragraphs 3 and 7 of the Convention, benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources as well as subsequent applications and commercialization shall be shared in a fair and equitable way with the Party providing such resources that is the country of origin of such resources or a Party that has acquired the genetic resources in accordance with the Convention. Such sharing shall be upon mutually agreed terms.
2. Each Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures, as appropriate, with the aim of ensuring that benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources that are held by indigenous and local communities, in accordance with domestic legislation regarding the established rights of these indigenous and local communities over these genetic resources, are shared in a fair and equitable way with the communities concerned, based on mutually agreed terms.
Thus, after researching in the community, it was necessary to give back to the community in a in an effective and understandable way for them.
Work has been done by promoting sustainability and taking care of ecosystems; by trying to reduce the levels of inequality in the capacities and opportunities of the community; by recognizing and respecting ethnic differences; by harmonious coexistence, contributing to the flowering of their culture, and understanding contextual education; by recognizing, respecting, and promoting various forms of literacy, depending on the social and environmental context, so that these goals can be fulfilled by the people; by respecting and promoting simple lifestyles; and by recognizing different spiritual practices in the community [33].
This powerful tool for learning and social transformation allows students to learn while acting on the various needs of the environment with the aim of transforming reality through improving actions, while reflecting in a structured way on lived experience [74]. In SL, students engage in community service while at the same time gaining academic knowledge and skills [35].

Evaluation Challenges in an SL Project
Teachers in Higher Education are called on to design activities that facilitate a student's learning. If these activities are focused on sustainability issues, the educational needs for interdisciplinarity (because sustainability is not constrained to a single dimension), creativity (because new challenges need new methods), and fun (because there is not a better way of making teaching efficient). Carrying out interdisciplinary work is demanding, and considering ethical issues within the curriculum means that teachers have to make such an effort that not all of them are willing to do so [116].
SL guarantees the connection between the academic lives of students and local environments. It is an active learning method that gives sense to the study activity. Regarding the community where it is actuated, SL allows a feasible solution to specific situations and real problems [90,117]. SL is a useful method for familiarizing students with the local environment. It connects living environments meaningfully to the lives of students and to the communities they come from [117].
SL can be used, as in the current experience, as an additional method for educational purposes when the service has meaning within academic development. For this end, we must link objectives and activities, as well as evaluate the service itself. Planification and proper scheduled activities are required in order to realize a successful SL experience. Ultimately, SL can engender new modes of living education in the classroom, giving a sense of utility to almost every piece of knowledge and content and making learning more interesting and enjoyable [63]. Moreover, SL can help students attain the necessary competences and develop other types of skills that would not have been possible following a traditional teaching methodology, such as global citizenship (understanding the global circumstances of local communities, the implications of our western way-of-life, etc.), empathy, and adaptations to different (and more difficult) environments for education.
This SL experience yields the following reflections. Social sustainability deals with different aspects of human rights. The customs, uses, and practices of indigenous peoples are compatible with the protection of natural resources and ethnocultural diversity [50]. Good Living seeks to take care of the nature that we are part of [45].

Service Impact
The impact that an SL seems impossible to quantify. An SL acts in two directions: on the community affected by the service and on the institution driving the project [85]. In this sense, it is important to note that the University is involved in the SL project as an institution-that is, the initial academic space where the SL began. In addition, the personal implications of the students (those who developed the SL project) made the students develop new skills (such as those referred to above) and (most importantly) sensitiveness toward global situation of inequality, the search for justice, and individual and collective responsibility. These and other competences can be encapsulated in so-called global citizenship and ethics [17]. Table 2 shows a summary taken by Torres and Laprida [117] on some benefits of working using a service-learning methodology in the classroom. Table 2. Summary of the benefits of SL [110].

Benefits
Increases student engagement and motivation Improves academic learning Encourages reflection and critical thinking Promotes the personal and social development of students Reduces risky behaviors among students Greater linkage to the educational institution Connects education with the needs of the environment

Increases teacher motivation and increases teacher satisfaction
Emotions play an important role in the whole teaching-learning process, especially in scientific disciplines [57]. Studies suggest that the application of active methodologies in Biology improves academic learning and emotional responses toward learning science [118]. When the students engaged in active and authentic tasks, they were more likely to plan and evaluate their learning [119]. SL, in this case, is an example of how every benefit cited in Table 2 has been integrated.
SL projects have the potential to develop a vision of social justice, to acquire critical awareness of problems, motivations for change, and a commitment and accountability to results [119]. Through SL, students increase their awareness of social justice [120].

Not Only Benefits: A SWOT Analysis
SWOT is the acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is a well-known dynamic for analyzing experiences and situations in a systematic way, in order to identify the best and most profitable aspects, as well as those that must be transformed because they constitute dangers and weak points [117].
In this way, Table 3 offers a SWOT analysis of the current SL experience.

Weaknesses Threats
• Some theoretical content can be left behind. • SL forces us to go outside our "comfort circle." • Official procedures for evaluation are not adapted for individual work with each student. • Society can misunderstand the fact that students are engaging in social services during academic periods.
• The official syllabus is in risk of not being completed.

•
High-level coordination is required, especially between teachers and social agents.

•
It requires more teacher dedication (or more teachers).

•
There is still a large gap between academic issues and professional/social concerns. This gap must be filled.
As can be seen, the main concerns about the implementation of a SL experience for promoting SDGs have to do with the fact that it places us a bit far from the exact academic completion of the syllabus; it is also a rather heterodox teaching practice. The challenge is, therefore, to include these experiences in standard teacher planning, as well as evaluation (internal and external), in order to overcome possible risks.

Conclusions
Higher education institutions play a very important role in the achievement of SDGs [17]. Transversal competences are probably the most intangible competence, but, at the same time, they are the most required for the current world. SDGs and the paradigms they develop require these soft skills [121].
As in other studies, service-learning is shown to be a perfect resource for teachers to teach about sustainability [17,64,[112][113][114]. Good living (Sumak Kawsay) could be an appropriate framework for students to develop competences. From the perspective of Good Living, from a holistic perspective, one cannot separate the nature of the community from its people. The human being is an individual who is part of a community and of nature [45]. Simple living introduces the need for a social ethos of good living, a cultural change that modifies patterns of consumption towards a socially and ecologically sustainable one: to live well within social and ecological limits [45].
The current work presented a specific SL activity, focused on the promotion of sustainability under the prism of SDGs. Analysis of the activity shows many competences, especially those related to global citizenship, and transversal skills (soft skills) were developed. As far as we know, there are few studies with a similar research focus [39,59,62,108,[122][123][124].
Finally, this work is an example of how it is possible to integrate SDG and Good Living objectives in higher education. One of the best ways to do this is through the FDDs of environmental sciences. It is then possible to achieve the competences required by UNESCO [21] and by the official curriculum. It seems necessary for universities to work on sustainability. This help all the individuals and families within society to live healthy and prosperous lives. Social sustainability also deals with different political and religious issues. People from all cultures, religions, values, and ethical backgrounds have a prosperous life in the future [42]. To educate is to introduce a person into the participatory flows of our society; moreover, to educate critically is to participate in a student's transformation [90].
The methodology of SL, through a process of action-reflection-action, collaborates in an efficient and practical solution for the consolidation of the basic competencies that contribute to a successful life and good social functioning in the general framework of universal values: respect for human rights, integral development, and democratic processes [119].  Acknowledgments: Thanks to C.X. Luzuriaga Quichimbo, Luzmila Gayas, and the members of the Kichwa Community of Pakayaku, (Pastaza, Ecuador) for their cooperation during the field work.

Conflicts of Interest:
The authors declare no conflict of interest. Table A1. Analysis of the SL project.

Technical details:
Responsible entity: University of Extremadura Number of participant students: 1 (FDD Student) Number of persons to whom the service is addressed: 1200 inhabitants of Pakayaku [48] Background The Pakayaku community is an isolated indigenous kichwa population that has little contact with the outside world. The community sites are on the shores of the Bobonaza River (an Amazon tributary) in Pastaza (Ecuador). There is no electricity, no running water, no sewers, no internet, no landline telephones, and no mobile phone coverage. Coexistence is peaceful and access is by canoe and fully regulated by the community. Society divides tasks according to gender. Ecuador's Ministry of Education has become committed to the most neglected indigenous communities in the Amazon. It proposed to set up schools in the jungle where formal education would be harmonized with their culture of origin. At the Faculty of Sciences in the University of Extremadura (Spain), a previous study dealing with the ethnobotany of the area was performed. The principal aim of that previous study was adding value to the biodiversity of Pakayaku to serve as a source of innovation for development. Researchers realized that the community's teachers needed didactic material adapted to their socioeconomic conditions. They were informed by teachers and the population about this demand.

Social need to be serve by the project
Creation of didactic materials for teachers who have to teach biology and earth sciences in rural amazonic contexts. Fight for the right to universal education

Learning objectives
Acquire a multidisciplinary and global vision of the environmental problem, based on various sectors of knowledge. Be able to deal with environmental problems with rigor, in accordance with the complexity of their scope, taking into account the rest of the social and economic problems of the society. To be able to situate oneself in a new context with unique problems, identify those problems, analyze them, and propose methods of action. Recognize the ethical dimension of problems Evaluate one's own activities and learning process, developing strategies to improve them and undertaking further studies with autonomy; Integrate legal, socio-economic and cultural factors in the treatment of environmental problems. Process, interpret (quantitatively and qualitatively), and present experimental results To design and execute plans and programs for formation, diffusion, and environmental sensitization

Curricular areas involved
Didactic, Botany, Ecology

Service Objectives
To create material for teachers working in the Kichwa communities of Amazonian Ecuador adapted to their spiritual values and beliefs; Preserving the indigenous cosmovision through the cultural use of plants; To promote the conservation of ancestral ethnobotanical practices; To help match the academic formation of the children of the community with those of the rest of the country; To demonstrate that there are many possibilities for research in Amazonian ethnobotany; To facilitate community empowerment through education; To help to the public University of Extremadura (Spain) to comply with the Nagoya Protocol.

Activities to achieve the objective
Deeply study the community, traditions, conditions, social customs, geography, ethnobotanicals; Design 20 educational fact sheets with botanical information of the (20) most important species for the community; Elaboration of a science workbook with activities to help teachers using the official curriculum of Education (Ministry of Ecuador), exploring the contents that they demand students must know; Giving this material to the indigenous community.

Entities involved in the project
University of Extremadura, Spain Originary Community of Pakayaku, Pastaza, Ecuador

Reflection
Engaging in this project makes the FDD student reflect on the impossibilities of achieving sustainable development if we exclude any part of the world's population from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life. It makes the learner realize the global inequalities affecting us all and that problems and challenges (poverty, climate change) are never just confined to one country or region. It importantly empowers and promote inclusive social and economic growth, while we should also respect that natural landscapes are closely linked to spiritual values and beliefs. From our comfortable Western position, we can work together to improve access to education and health. Indigenous people are important because they maintain and protect a capital of knowledge and biological patrimony. They must to fight against the accelerated loss of their society and culture

Evaluation
The project was developed within the official curriculum of the Degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Extremadura as a FDD. The final evaluation was made after the public defense of the work before a tribunal composed of three expert doctors (PhDs). Also, during the process, almost every week a common reflection was shared between the teacher and the student to evaluate the project's advances and future lines of work. Concerning the evaluation of self-learning, through this project it was possible to integrate the knowledge and contents of various scientific and social fields but also to attain various competences and develop other types of skills that would not have been possible following a traditional teaching methodology.

Celebration
After the elaboration of the cards and the defense of the FDD, one of the investigators of the previous ethnobotanical research, of Ecuadorian origin, returned to Ecuador and delivered the didactic material to the indigenous community and teachers. They accepted the material we created, but we did not engage in any celebration together.