STS as Critical Pedagogy: Experiments in Undergraduate Teaching and Learning - I

Abstract

One way of conceptualizing STS engagement is in terms of ‘experiments in participation,’or projects that ‘formulate, enact, and reflexively learn from novel, STS-inspired practices within their fields of study’ (Downey and Zuiderent-Jerak 2017, p. 239.) Sites of undergraduate teaching and learning provide opportunities for critical participation in STS. Whether helping STS students to understand the discipline sufficiently to further their their education or career path, or STEM students to critically reflect on their assumptions about technological progress, or social science and humanities students to interrogate information, media, and knowledge production, STS has to be made fun, engaging, and accessible if it is to really work as critical pedagogy.

In this open panel, we seek contributions that demonstrate and reflect on STS in the undergraduate educational experience. We invite STS educators to share their own experiments in undergraduate education, and reflections on what it means to engage undergraduates in STS in meaningful ways. In addition to traditional talks, we invite playfully novel forms of interactive presentation, such as teaching demos (worksheets, activities, etc.), interdisciplinary learning experiments and research, and overviews of innovative course syllabi. We welcome collaborative presentations with students.

Contributions could:

Reflect on the role of the STS educator embedded within different disciplinary arenas (such as STEM environments).
Demonstrate classroom activities and assessments centered around STS themes.
Describe efforts to involve students in research and other forms of experiential learning.
Reflect on STS as critical pedagogy within broader contexts, such as teaching STS to undergraduates in a post-truth era.

Individual Presentations

• Interdisciplinary Pedagogy for Developing Critical Thinking Skills in the Course “Gender and the Brain” - Shelby Dietz, Cornell University

• SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture - Damien Patrick Williams

• Reimagining First-Year Writing for STEM Students as Experiential Learning in Science Studies - Marisa R Brandt, Michigan State University

Session Organizers

• Emily York, James Madison University

• Shannon Conley, James Madison University

• Marisa R Brandt, Michigan State University