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Peer Review, Winter 2005
Connecting Science and Technology Education with Civic
Understanding:
A Model for Engagement
By Richard F. Vaz,
associate dean, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies
Division, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and senior
science fellow, Association of American Colleges and
Universities
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Advances in science and technology have
fundamentally transformed our lives. We live longer, travel
faster and farther, and have ready access to more information,
resources, goods, and services than previous generations would
have thought possible. However, as new technologies emerge,
new challenges arise. Computers have become pervasive--greatly
facilitating communication and expanding access to information
but also providing new opportunities for theft, loss of privacy,
and corporate fraud. Rapid advances in biotechnology promise
to alleviate disease and enhance quality of life, but at the
same time, they raise difficult ethical and economic questions.
New models for agriculture have made more foods more widely
available, yet also create concerns regarding biodiversity,
genetic modification, and rural sustainability. As an array
of technologies drives economic growth, the resulting demand
for energy threatens both the natural environment and our
national security.
Virtually every important public concern involves scientific
or technical issues. However, the extent to which advances
in science and technology will meet fundamental needs of communities
is uncertain. Science and technology education has too rarely
involved social issues, and technological development has
been driven more by opportunity and possibility than by human
need. Future leaders in science and technology must better
understand the societal contexts in which science and technology
takes place. In an increasingly technological world, human
progress and quality of life will increasingly depend on science
and technology education that is informed by social and civic
awareness and directed toward the needs of communities.
Calls for Civic Engagement in Science and Technology
Education
With colleges and universities under public pressure to demonstrate
their value, a consensus is emerging that preparation for
civic responsibility must be part of general education, and
also of education in the disciplines and professions. AAC&U
president Carol Geary Schneider (2003) has described civic
engagement as "an organizing principle in today's discussions
of higher learning," noting that in a knowledge-intensive
society, we bear responsibility to "give our students
practice in considering the implications of . . . different
courses of action that may be based on their knowledge."
Once considered the responsibility of primary and secondary
schools, education for civic engagement is increasingly seen
as an imperative for higher education.
Today's students will face the responsibilities of freedom
in a complex, dynamic world that does not organize itself
neatly into academic disciplines; they need preparation for
participation in democracy as well as in the economy. To be
responsible actors and effective leaders in their professions
and communities, students of science and technology, in particular,
must learn to make connections between academic learning,
professional practice, and important public questions, so
that as professionals and practitioners they can pose their
own meaningful questions and seek sustainable, appropriate
solutions.
The engineering profession recently articulated a clear call
for change in how its future practitioners and leaders are
prepared. ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology (2004), has established new criteria that differ
substantially from previous standards, requiring demonstration
that students attain "an understanding of professional
and ethical responsibility," "a knowledge of contemporary
issues," and "the broad education necessary to understand
the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic,
environmental, and societal context." Recently the National
Academy of Engineering (2004) took a similar public stance,
issuing a report entitled The Engineer of 2020 that
calls for "engineers who are broadly educated, who see
themselves as global citizens, who can be leaders in business
and public service, and who are ethically grounded."
Driven by professional imperatives, and also by emerging institutional
desires to educate students for democracy, engineering and
technology programs are seeking new strategies for helping
students to understand their work in broader contexts.
Curricular change is never easily achieved, and science and
technology present particular challenges for reform. Faculty
members whose careers are based on specific expertise can
understandably find it difficult to see connections between
calls for educational reform and their own work, which is
often more focused on the creation of new knowledge than on
bringing that knowledge to practice. To help students think
and work in context, we must venture outside our own disciplinary
boxes--a cultural challenge with implications not only for
the curriculum, but also for how the faculty is trained, supported,
and rewarded.
Promising Practices for Civic Engagement in Science
and Technology Education
Effective models for making science and technology education
more context-based can address both national calls for change
and institutional priorities. As colleges and universities
explore ways to become better citizens of their own localities,
any resulting collaborations between institutions and their
communities present an opportunity that can merge well with
the goals of preparing students for citizenship. The increasing
presence of community service activity on U.S. campuses is
laudable, but often this activity takes the form of volunteerism
that is unconnected to the curriculum. Community service often
lacks the type of engagement defined by as "the production
of new knowledge and the placement of that knowledge in the
service of moral aims" (Burns 2001). Student engagement
also requires the presence of unscripted problems in the curriculum
that challenge students to produce new knowledge and weigh
the costs and benefits of multiple solutions.
Engagement, and the active learning role it implies for students,
can result from a variety of pedagogical strategies that involve
students in open-ended inquiry, especially in response to
the needs of communities. The Association of American Colleges
and Universities (Schneider 2001) has identified especially
promising practices for promoting engaged, active learning
that can help prepare students for social and civic responsibility,
including collaborative inquiry, experiential learning,
service learning, project-based learning, and integrative
learning. These strategies typify an emerging vision
for undergraduate education. Although not new, they are increasingly
featured in programs of study in more consistent and intentional
ways, in orientations, seminars, and learning communities;
core courses in general education and the majors; and in capstone
experiences. These engaging pedagogies help students bring
together theory and practice to make connections between knowledge
and real-world problems. In science and technology curricula,
it is especially effective to tie these strategies to the
disciplines, so that students begin to see connections between
their fields of study and social contexts.
A Case Study in Civic Engagement for Science and
Technology
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has featured pedagogies
of engagement since the early 1970s, when the university adopted
a project-based approach to undergraduate education. All WPI
students, about 90 percent of whom major in engineering or
science, must complete a series of three projects that collectively
help them to make connections between theory and practice
and to better understand themselves and their world. In the
junior year, students complete the Interactive Qualifying
Project (IQP), an interdisciplinary project that helps
students understand how science and technology affect society,
and also how science and technology can be more responsive
to social issues and human needs.
The IQP is equivalent in credit to three courses, but it
is not organized as a course. Students work in small multidisciplinary
teams--typically two to four students--under the guidance
of faculty advisors, addressing problems that are usually
posed by an external sponsor. After being given an open-ended
problem description, student teams establish project goals,
conduct background research, and collaborate with advisors
and sponsors to pursue the project goals. Typically, field
work is involved to gather information relevant to the project,
and social science methods inform the analysis. In addition
to whatever system, product, or recommendations are appropriate
to the problem at hand, students develop a formal written
report, and also orally present the results of their work
to faculty advisors and the sponsoring agency.
The educational goals of the IQP include critical and contextual
thinking, written and oral communication skills, teamwork
and professional skills, and in particular an understanding
of the interrelationships between scientific and technological
advance, societal structures, and human need. Student teams
and faculty advisors come together from different disciplines--engineering,
natural sciences, management, social sciences, and the humanities--bringing
different perspectives to bear on problems that may or may
not be related to their areas of specialization. The majority
of projects are completed in close collaboration with governmental
agencies, nongovernmental agencies, and not-for-profit organizations.
WPI has been able to sustain this interdisciplinary project
because it is central to the curriculum, an academic requirement
for all undergraduates. Faculty members from every academic
department participate, often in multidisciplinary teams.
WPI's Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division serves
as a campus-wide resource, supporting student preparation
and faculty development for the IQP as well as providing administrative
oversight to a worldwide network of project centers at
which IQPs are conducted. Exploiting WPI's unique academic
calendar, the project center model allows students to complete
their IQP by working full time during one seven-week term,
focusing on their research, fieldwork, and interactions with
the sponsoring agency and the community.
While approximately 30 percent of WPI students pursue IQPs
on the WPI campus, about 50 percent of WPI students complete
the IQP abroad at project centers in Australia, Costa Rica,
Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Namibia, Thailand, and the United
Kingdom. The other 20 percent of students complete their projects
at WPI's domestic project Centers in Boston, San Juan, Washington,
DC, and in the university's home city, at the Worcester Community
Project Center.
Engagement in Democracy and Local Issues
The Worcester Community Project Center (WCPC) was established
to provide opportunities for engagement in local affairs and
to make focused contributions to WPI's home city. Like most
midsized U.S. cities, Worcester, Massachusetts, faces challenges
involving economic development, environmental quality, planning
and infrastructure, cultural preservation, and enhancement
of quality of life for a diverse population. Projects at the
WCPC involve student teams with municipal government offices,
local schools, community development organizations, and grassroots
efforts to promote a better future for the city. Examples
of these projects include the following:
- Urban Planning: Working with the Office of the Mayor,
student teams developed plans for a business park and an
arts district, as well as for brownfield redevelopment.
- Economic Development: Working with the city manager and
chamber of commerce, student teams developed marketing strategies
and recommended new parking and transportation plans.
- Community Development: Working with a local community
center, students developed a "green" building
design to attract external funding for development.
- Public Safety: Working with the Parks Commission, students
developed an auditing and maintenance system to reduce injuries
at the city's playgrounds.
- Education: Working with Worcester Public Schools, a series
of project teams helped develop and evaluate a state-mandated
curriculum in engineering.
- Environmental Protection: Working with the Greater Worcester
Land Trust, a student team mapped land-use history to prioritize
acquisitions for conservation.
Faculty-conducted program reviews of the IQP have indicated
that students demonstrate high achievement of learning outcomes
at the project centers, where projects bring students into
direct engagement with local organizations and issues. WPI
has found that students perform at their highest levels when
tackling real-world problems that help them see how their
knowledge and skills can be put to use in ways that are meaningful
and useful to others outside of the university.
Conclusion
To prepare students for responsible leadership in an increasingly
interconnected and technological world, colleges and universities
are seeking strategies for connecting science and technology
education with civic and social understanding. Engaging students
in community-based problem solving can help students see science
and technology in the larger contexts of public policy and
quality of life while also promoting collaborative capabilities,
critical thinking and communication abilities, and professional
skills.
To engage students of science and technology in meaningful
problems, institutions need look no further than their own
communities. Municipal offices, community development organizations,
and school systems are typically beset with challenges that
can benefit from student and faculty work, and can serve as
settings for rich and powerful learning experiences. High
levels of engagement are likely when students are asked to
address compelling, real-world problems in collaboration with
local organizations.
Today's students of science and technology will grapple with
tomorrow's challenges of energy and the environment, public
health, infrastructure, public safety, and urban sustainability.
The extent to which scientific and technological advance will
be responsive to those challenges depends largely on whether
our students learn to make wise decisions as professionals
and citizens. Now is the time to help our students begin to
see science and technology in broader contexts.
References
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
2004. Criteria for accrediting engineering programs.
Baltimore, MD: ABET.
Burns, D. 2001. Students and the engaged academy. Liberal
Education 87 (1): 2-3.
National Academy of Engineering. 2004. The engineer of
2020. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Schneider, C. 2001. Toward an engaged academy: New scholarship,
new teaching. Liberal Education 87 (1): 18-27.
---. 2003. Introduction. Peer Review 5 (3): 3
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