A STS STEM Education Incubator: The Co-Making of Inquiry
Nicole Mogul, University of Maryland, College Park;
David Tomblin, University of Maryland, College Park; Matthew Aruch, University Of Maryland College Park
Boston 2017: Pedagogy
Because we find it difficult to teach STS to undergraduate STEM majors, we are obsessed with developing experiential, movement-based classroom activities. Our goals are to operationalize STS concepts, dramatize and document knowledge construction, and create environments that privilege what John Schumacher called, “the co-making of inquiry.” Our methods are centered on building student self-awareness about identity formation so they can understand how pre-existing structural constraints often define their place in the STEM world. This helps students see how they can step out of these pre-determined roles and make socially responsible decisions in the future. In this STS Making and Doing session, we will share insights, collect ideas and incubate new activities. This interactive exhibit will convey and document, but most importantly, GENERATE ideas. How it works: Our method is a menu. We display and model sample activities/artifacts that we have developed for our classes. We will record conference attendee ideas and give them a structure for working (with us, in pairs, or in small groups) to either develop new activities, or to articulate ideas they may have been afraid to try. Attendees can customize their experience by choosing from concepts and/or activity type, or they may choose to be assigned these randomly. This method will facilitate interaction between or among attendees for very quick bursts of creative work and expression. Our ambition is to inspire, challenge and record for the purpose of sharing activities that may be replicated and improved.
