Michelle Kovarik

A Syllabus for the Scientific Process in a Changing World part of STEM Futures:Product Elements
Our rapidly changing world faces significant, multi-faceted problems at the nexus of technology and society. The response to these socioscientific issues will impact the future of the human condition. The scientific process has a role to play in finding timely, effective, and evidence-based solutions. This course showcases science as a dynamic and iterative process that includes collecting and connecting observations, making hypotheses based on the current understanding, and constructing models that are revised as new knowledge is acquired. It emphasizes the role of dialogue and communication in shaping responses to socioscientific issues.

The Scientific Process in a Changing World part of STEM Futures:Products
We have designed in detail a single course to serve as the first in an envisioned sequence of courses for a certificate in science literacy. There are two phases to the course. An initial case study will exemplify how the scientific process played out in a historical context. In the second phase, students will produce a final report about a contemporary socioscientific issue, present their results to the class, and generate a "publishable" product.