Meeting Abstract
Confronting challenges like climate change, population growth, communicable disease, and the gathering, analysis, and management of large data sets, requires an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach. The shift to include the Arts and Humanities in STEM education (STEAM) is a first step. However, to promote the development of socially responsible scientists and scientifically literate individuals capable of shaping socially just policy informed by evidence and data, we must do more. Though Bruno Latour launched a post-modern attack on science as authority via the “Science Wars” during the 1980s, he is now championing “science as a way of knowing” and investigating how a Lovelockian approach to planetary health can combat the current flight from reason. Alongside this shift, is the DIY Science/Maker movement that: takes science out of the ivory tower and places it in the hands of communities; catalyzes interest in lab-based citizen science; and utilizes on-campus, off-campus, and on-the-web resources. To tap this growing interest, we can incorporate visual narratives to communicate the interdisciplinary, temporal, and spatial aspects of basic and applied scientific research to those outside the field. Collectively, these approaches emphasize “Responsibility” in STEAM education, capturing a wider audience through lab-based learning, “Design” principles, and infographic thinking (STREAMD). In this presentation, I will share some initiatives that support community collaboration and authentic story-telling, and describe some of the challenges associated with implementation. More specifically, I will highlight projects that use a social justice and interdisciplinary framework to offer multiple portals for engagement by those typically underrepresented in science.
