...the earth and all therein, the sky And all thereunder change and change again, We too ourselves, who of this world are part, Not only flesh and blood but pilgrim souls.... Ovid. Metamorphosis (1-8 A.C.E.) All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change. Earthseed: The Books of the Living Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)

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Program Description:

The big bang. Plate tectonics. Tsunamis. Evolution. Caterpillers. Butterflies. Rainbows. Ovid's Metamorphosis and Butler's Parables. Human Development. Technology. K-16 Collaboration. From the beginnings of the universe to the development of new computer technologies, change is necessary for life.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but takes different forms: as in the scattering of white light into the colorful spectrum of the rainbow. As inorganic matter changes into organic life and then continues to evolve over time. As a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, and human culture designs new technologies at an ever-increasing pace.

What do such changes mean for us as changing creatures? How do we cope with them? In search of understanding, we create stories to supply meaning, consistency and consensus. What stories does science tell in this regard? How helpful are they in answering these questions?

Science is often thought of as a special set of interests, abilities and practices, rather than as a process of question-asking, intuition-testing and story-revising that all of us engage in daily, and which all of us--whatever our content area--can pursue in our classrooms. Understood in this way, science is accessible to everyone, and best taught in relation to other parts of the curriculum, by teachers who are themselves excited by the sort of teaching and learning that involves exploring new realms and trying out new tasks.

This Institute will provide selected K-12 teachers with an opportunity to explore ways of better "understanding change" in the universe as a whole and in human beings in particular. The Institute is an intensive workshop aimed at developing inquiry-based, hands-on classroom "modules" which allow students themselves to develop scientific understandings of change, with teachers acting as their guides and consultants. A series of demonstrations and experiments, developed by College faculty in physics, geology, biology, literature, psychology and computer science, will be presented each morning; teachers will be asked to assist, each afternoon, in conceiving ways to adapt the modules to their own classroom settings. Attention will also be given to the internet as a valuable tool for both curriculum development and dissemination of information.

The Institute Directors are Anne Dalke, Senior Lecturer in English and Co-ordinator of the Feminist and Gender Studies Program at Bryn Mawr, and Wilfred Franklin, Laboratory Instructor and Coordinator in Biology. Professor Dalke's primary area of scholarly questioning, just now, concerns the intersection of science and literature, and what it means for interdisciplinary teaching. She has published two collections of essays, Teaching to Learn/Learning to Teach: Meditations on the Classroom and Minding the Light: Essays in Friendly Pedagogy. Professor Franklin teaches the major and non-major biology laboratories and is currently collaborating with faculty in many sub-disciplines to develop a new Inquiry-based curriculum for the Biology Department at Bryn Mawr.

The Institute directors will be assisted by Paul Grobstein, Professor of Biology and organizer of the Summer Institute program, and by colleagues in a number of other College science departments.