Evolving Science Education

Bryn Mawr College and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Evolving Science Education:
A Progress Report and Prospectus, 2006

Notes for Discussion
23 October 2006
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Peter Brodfuehrer
Paul Grobstein

Available at http://serendipstudio.org/hhmi/hhmi2006.html

Beginning in 1988 ... General Themes

Women in science
Faculty/students as research colleagues
Interdisciplinarity

Neural and Behavioral Science
Computer Science
Environmental Studies

Science literacy / College Seminar Program
K-12 outreach
Collaborations with Haverford College
- Parallel, complementary biology programs (breadth, focus)
- Neural and Behavioral Sciences
- Outreach programs

Introductory Biology sequence - weekly interactive learning
Making Sense of Life, an alternate intro biology course
Integrated Organismal Biology
Channels to Behavior, team taught biology/psychology
Emergence, team taught, biology/computer science
The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories, team taught, biology/English
Ideals of Scientific Explanation and the Nature of its Objects, team taught, biology/philosophy

The Current Program

Revisions of undergraduate major curricula in biology

More hands-on, investigative, integrated courses across all levels of the curriculum

A new minor in computational methods
Science Horizons Program

Off-campus research internships
Science education internships

Movement towards broader outreach

The word 'scientific' always intimidated me since I associated it with ... knowledge of terminology, and memorization of chemical elements. ... I believe that such narrow-minded approach comes from me growing up in a family and surroundings not at all affiliated with science in any way ... As I learned today, 'scientific' means of study of the physical and natural world based on the observation and experiment (moreover, this is the definition givenby Oxford dictionary). Thus, for example, if I, as a Theatre Design major, track back to the stone ages the development of the 'performance' doing research, it would be a 'scientific' approach to the matter. The bridging of such gap of stereotypes surprised me to a great extent and made me question the number of stereotypes that I bred in my head during my 22 years of existence ... Bio 103 On-Line Forum
Getting it less wrong will also give me the strength to try new tactics or lesson strategies, realizing that it is all a big experiment, and each "mistake" or "failure" I have is really a suceess on the road to getting it less wrong ... Summer Institute On-Line Forum

Assessment of Progress

Tracking college student outcomes and satisfaction with summer science program

More than thirty majors a year going on to a variety of careers, including academic biology, medicine, others (teaching, community organization, etc)
Significant impact on students pursuing other majors

Tracking teacher satisfaction and integration of knowledge gained through the Summer Institutes into the classroom

Strong satisfaction with programs
New collaborations

The scale and complexity of today's biomedical research problems increasingly demands that scientists move beyond the confines of their own discipline and explore new organizational models for team science ... NIH Roadmap

Science has the potential to be what we all collectively need as we evolve into a world wide community: a nexus point that encourages and supports the evolution of shared human stories of exploration and growth, an evolution in which all human beings are involved and take pride. For this to happen, we all need to work much harder to not only reduce the perception of science as a specialized and isolated activity of the few but to make it in fact the product and property of all human beings ... Revisiting Science in Culture

Sample topics for wider shared engagement/conversation ...

Human health and well-being
Increased ability to influence genetic information
Evolution
Environmental management
Mental health

Further Directions

A need for wider engagement with science and of science
Scientists as communicators
All humans as scientists
More general outreach

Interdependence of K-12 and college science education
Need to elevate education as a valued career
Need to create supportive cultural environment for science
Need to alter the culture of science itself

Center for Science in Society

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Bryn Mawr College and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Evolving Science Education: A Progress Report and Prospectus, 2006

Bryn Mawr College and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Evolving Science Education:
A Progress Report and Prospectus, 2006