Bettyjo Bouchey

An Ecosystem Intersecting Humanities, Computational, and Engineering Disciplines with Cultural and Other Assets of Our Communities part of STEM Futures:Products
A manifesto, as used in this document, refers to a public declaration of views or stances, acknowledging what is generally already commonly-held knowledge from publications and past conversations, but then presenting new ideas of what should be done. We are crafting this manifesto to make our vision for the future of STEM education clear to others and give examples of what we could someday attain. This document serves as a guide for faculty and administrators in higher education who are interested in widening access and participation. We seek to guide all agents involved (students, faculty and staff) toward achieving their full potential by first identifying, then moving away from traditional models of higher education based on industrial metaphors which focus on production and system efficiency, and standardized inputs and outputs, into an ecosystem-based model, in which agents are seen as assets that enrich a learning environment, valued for who they are, their strengths, their desires, and the dreams they bring in, and they are nurtured to thrive. It is only by shifting our thinking from metaphors of production to ones of growth that we can open up alternative futures.

Overview of a Biology Degree part of STEM Futures:Product Elements
Biology as a domain can no longer remain siloed off from other bodies of knowledge without risking underserving or alienating our future students. While new majors have emerged to seemingly integrate the study of life with specialized skills or concepts (e.g. bioengineering, computational biology, science and society), all of these represent further fracturing of biology as a discipline rather than bringing together critical components that future biologists need to thrive and serve their communities.