MOST RECENT ARTICLES
"But You Needed Me": Reflections on the Premises, Purposes, Lessons Learned, and Ethos of SENCER, Part 2
Winter 2012 /
Comments (0) This paper is based on the opening plenary address at the 10th annual SENCER Summer Institute delivered by SENCER's co-founder, the paper's author. SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), supported by the National Science Foundation, works to improve learning and strengthen civic engagement in undergraduate courses that teach through complex, capacious, unsolved civic issues to canonical knowledge and practice in Stem and other fields. Part one appeared in the last issue.
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Preparing Students for a Transdisciplinary Approach to Solving a Complex Problem: Traffic Issues in Los Angeles
Winter 2012 / Comments (0) In addition to preparing students in disciplinary areas, universities must train them to become independent thinkers and to be capable of taking part in complex and collective activities outside their disciplines. Furthermore, students should be trained to extract knowledge from scientific practices and procedures, and integrate that knowledge with their disciplinary-specific knowledge to solve real-world complex issues. The training should consist of important mental activities such as analyzing the data to understand inter- and intraconnections; abstracting methods and techniques through analysis and synthesis; mentally organizing such procedures and techniques; and applying those to solve complex environmental and community issues.
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Reshaping How Educators View Student STEM Learning: Assessment of the SENCER Experience
Winter 2012 / Comments (0)There are innumerable government-commissioned reports documenting the need for improved STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. These are exemplified by Rising above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (2007)and the National Action Plan for Addressing the Critical Needs of the U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education System (2007). In 2010 the National Science Board report Preparing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators: Identifying and Developing Our Nation's Human Capital emphasized the urgency of the issue: "to ensure the long-term prosperity of our Nation, we must renew our collective commitment to excellence in education and the development of scientific talent."
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Laboratories in a Democracy: Science and Hard Public Policy
Winter 2012 / Comments (0)Scientists in the trenches of their work know that doing inventive and worthwhile research taxes mind, body, and spirit. Supporting funds always seem to be scarce, false starts are distressingly common, pressure to publish can be unrelenting, experiments can resist sure replication, colleagues may be uncooperative, and flashes of understanding can be frustratingly elusive. Despite the frustrations, however, hard work and persistence, brilliant insight, and sometimes a bit of serendipitous luck can produce findings that literally change the world. But why is it so hard for government to produce related public policy, particularly when the findings of science have so much to offer? Why is debate over climate change, nuclear waste disposal, evolution, vaccination, embryonic stem cell research, and environmental strategies so durable? Why do governments have such difficulty deciding on public questions, especially when answers informed by science seem so obvious to so many?
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