Associated Products
Bridging the Two Cultures (Web Resource)Title: Bridging the Two Cultures
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Abstract: This permanent website hosts an overview of the goals, findings, and personnel for Dean College's NEH grant project, which aims to bridge the learning cultures of humanities and the natural sciences. It also sample syllabi, assignments, and learning modules from the two project courses, "History of Science" and "Beyond Henrietta Lacks: Race and Medicine in 20th Century America."
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
http://www.dean.edu/humanitiesgrantPrimary URL Description: Link to "Bridging the Two Cultures"
"Bringing History into the Lab: A New Approach to Scientific Learning in General Education" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Bringing History into the Lab: A New Approach to Scientific Learning in General Education"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Abstract: Funded by a two-year curricular development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a team of two historians and one biologist at Dean College has created and implemented two courses that bring historical pedagogy into the science laboratory. Although we aimed for these courses to serve majors in science and medical fields, we chose to embed them within the general education curriculum, in order to create new learning opportunities for all students on campus. Dean is a four-year, private liberal arts institution in Franklin, MA, which attracts a diverse array of underserved student populations. Specifically, we developed the courses—one in the history of science and one in the history of medicine—during AY2017-2018 and then implemented them during AY2018-2019. They are fully integrated with laboratory instruction. The first course, “History of Science,” takes a general survey approach, both in lecture and lab, covering a variety of scientific disciplines. The second course, “Beyond Henrietta Lacks,” narrows the focus to issues of race and medicine in American history in lecture and to related scientific and medical concepts in a cell biology lab. In both courses, students attend a lecture (covering historical and scientific concepts) with an attached lab, in which they perform or simulate historical experiments. We hypothesize that this combination will improve student learning outcomes, learning experiences, and attitudes toward science. Using a variety of assessment instruments, we have generated a body of qualitative and quantitative data on student learning, experiences, and attitudes across the first year of this new general education curriculum, which we intend to share with colleagues through this paper.
Date: 1/4/2020
Primary URL:
https://aha.confex.com/aha/2020/webprogram/Paper29292.htmlPrimary URL Description: Link to the online conference program page for the paper.
Secondary URL:
https://aha.confex.com/aha/2020/webprogram/Session20419.htmlSecondary URL Description: Link to the online conference program page for the session organized by David Brandon Dennis.
Conference Name: 134th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association
Roundtable: "Integrated Courses: Benefits, Challenges, and Successes" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Roundtable: "Integrated Courses: Benefits, Challenges, and Successes"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Abstract: David Brandon Dennis
I led a two-year NEH-funded project at Dean College to develop two integrative general education courses blending history of science and the history of medicine with a science lab. In our assessment of the project we found that these courses significantly improved student experiences and attitudes toward science and history. I team-taught one of the courses (“History of Science”) with a biologist colleague. My role as project director allows me to speak to the experience of organizing and training faculty, mobilizing institutional resources, and integrating the new courses into our broader core curriculum.
Jessica Pisano
Entering into our History of Science and Medicine integrating teaching project as the traditionally trained scientist, my first challenge was learning how to learn and think like a historian. As the member of the team who spanned both classes, I had the additional challenge of bridging not just “two cultures” but two colleagues. While time consuming, these two facets of the project have enhanced my teaching well beyond our integrated courses and continues to influence my development of a biology major at Dean College.
R.A. Lawson
In our multi-year NEH-funded project, my role was to shape the cultural history investigations and narratives as relate to social factors such as ethnicity/race, gender, class, etc. I was therefore most involved in the creation of our history-biology dyad course, “Beyond Henrietta Lacks: Race and Medicine in 20th Century America,” which paired cultural history lectures with biology labs. Most exciting to me in this process—in addition to the rewarding collaboration with our consultants and my institutional colleagues—was inhabiting the space of the student-learner for the lab sessions, modeling genuine joy of learning alongside our students. The main challenge I experienced was the attempt to limit the scope of the course, because each subtopic inevitably led to a fascinating web of inquiry.
Date: 10/8/2020
Primary URL:
https://hssmeeting.org/programPrimary URL Description: Link to the online program for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society
Conference Name: 2020 Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society
"Slavery, Race-Thinking, and the Making of American Medicine: J. Marion Sims and the View from the Nineteenth-Century Gulf South" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Slavery, Race-Thinking, and the Making of American Medicine: J. Marion Sims and the View from the Nineteenth-Century Gulf South"
Author: R.A.Lawson, Ph.D.
Abstract: In April 2018, New York City authorities followed the lead of several other institutions that had memorialized the work of J. Marion Sims—the “father of gynecology” and developer of a breakthrough surgery to repair vesico-vaginal fistula—by removing from Central Park a statue depicting the 19th century Alabama doctor. Much of Sims’ experimental work was accomplished by operating on enslaved women. The removal of the statue opened yet another chapter in the contemporary American struggle with race and historical memory—the intersection of slavery and medicine—while layering an important second theme: gender. Investigating the careers of Sims and other antebellum Gulf South medical practitioners—white, black, male, female—presents the human body and its medical treatment as a key battlefield for the working out of the social constructions of race and gender. This helps us explain the tendency of public memories of racism and sexism to invoke the history of medicine.
Date: 10/19/2019
"Grave Robbing and the Renaissance Anatomical Theatre" (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: "Grave Robbing and the Renaissance Anatomical Theatre"
Abstract: This public lecture for the Dean College campus community explores the sixteenth-century scientific revolution in the field of anatomy, through the work of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), as well as its connection with the natural realism that informed Renaissance art. Particular attention is given to the Renaissance phenomenon of anatomical dissection as public spectacle and performance.
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Date: 11/6/2018
Location: Dean College in Franklin, MA
"The Power of History in the Midst of Pandemic" (Blog Post)Title: "The Power of History in the Midst of Pandemic"
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Abstract: This blog post by project faculty was written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It incorporates insights and material on epidemiology and public health that were developed for the course "History of Science." In addition it discusses a published interview that project consultant Emily Hamilton, Ph.D. (previously Redman) did with MassLive.com about the similarities between the 1918 Flu Pandemic and the COVID-19 outbreak. We have maintained a close working relationship with Dr. Hamilton since working with her on the grant project. More specifically, this post incorporates project material with local Dean College history from the era of the 1918 Pandemic and discusses student responses. Students across our history curriculum learned about this material during the Spring 2020 semester.
Date: 4/17/2020
Primary URL:
https://www.dean.edu/news-events/dean-college-blog/story/the-power-of-history-in-the-midst-of-pandemic/Primary URL Description: Link to the blog post
Website: Dean College Blog
"Bringing History into the Lab: A New Approach to Scientific Learning in General Education" (Article)Title: "Bringing History into the Lab: A New Approach to Scientific Learning in General Education"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Abstract: The postwar era produced novel pedagogical projects aimed at integrating history and science teaching. Above all, these were shaped by the pedagogy of James Bryant Conant, who placed history at the heart of general science education. While Conant’s expansive vision for history of science ultimately was not realized, its emphasis on experiential learning for non-scientists is worth revisiting for current integrative approaches to higher education. A team of two historians and one biologist has done this by developing a teaching model that infuses the humanities into two general science education courses through history lectures integrated with science labs. We assessed the model’s impact on learning outcomes, experiences, and attitudes toward science and history through a blind study of student participants. Our results showed that courses taught using the model significantly improved experiences and attitudes toward science among students who were initially less friendly toward science, and improved experiences and attitudes toward history among students who were initially less friendly toward history.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/loi/isisPrimary URL Description: Link to the publisher's website
Secondary URL:
https://hssonline.org/resources/publications/isis-osiris/Secondary URL Description: Link to publications page on the History of Science Society website
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Isis (forthcoming in Sept. 2020)
Publisher: History of Science Society / University of Chicago Press
"The Cultural Construction of American Medicine with a View to Understanding Differences" (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: "The Cultural Construction of American Medicine with a View to Understanding Differences"
Abstract: The production of medical knowledge and the practice of medicine historically were seen as positivist pursuits in which authoritative figures made objective discoveries and applied them dispassionately to their patients. This mirrored widespread beliefs about the sciences in general. Increasingly, however, historians have come to understand medicine as a socially-constructed human behavior that is not purely objective in process or experience. In short, a more subjective view.
In a diverse society such as the United States, questions of who produces medical knowledge and to whom it is applied yield answers as myriad as the complex demography of America itself. And, is medicine something that only “comes from” a doctor, or is it something that is practiced in the home by patients and their family members? In this lecture, we’ll explore how the production of, attitudes about, and outcomes from medicine have changed over time.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Date: 2/10/2019
Location: Franklin Historical Museum
Syllabus: "History of Science" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Syllabus: "History of Science"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica Pisano, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Florence Hsia, Ph.D.
Author: Emily Redman, Ph.D.
Abstract: This is the most recent iteration of the syllabus for the project course, "History of Science." It is based on the syllabus created for the implementation semester (Fall 2018), but includes minor changes from the course's second run in Fall 2019.
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
https://dean-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/history-of-science-sample-syllabus.pdfPrimary URL Description: Direct link to the syllabus in PDF format on the project's permanent website.
Secondary URL:
https://www.dean.edu/humanitiesgrantSecondary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click on "Sample Course Materials: History of Science"
Audience: Undergraduate
Paper Assignment: "Lab Reports through Time" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Paper Assignment: "Lab Reports through Time"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Florence Hsia, Ph.D.
Author: Emily Hamilton, Ph.D.
Abstract: This paper assignment integrates one of the labs from the Scientific Revolution unit (Galileo's Inclined Plane Experiment) with lecture and discussion of the changing cultural styles and values in experimentation during the 16th and 17th centuries. First, students reproduce the inclined plane experiment under historical conditions that Galileo would have faced. Then they write up the lab report in three styles: (1) based on Galileo's model from his "Two Chief World Systems" (1632); (2) based on an experimental report that Robert Boyle published in his "Philosophical Transactions" in 1667; and (3) in the style of a standard present-day physical lab report. Finally students reflect on what changing conventions and formats of lab report can tell us about the cultural history of experimentation.
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://dean-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/paper-1-lab-reports-through-time.pdfPrimary URL Description: Direct link to the assignment on the project's permanent website.
Secondary URL:
http://www.dean.edu/humanitiesgrantSecondary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click the tab for "Sample Course Materials: History of Science"
Audience: Undergraduate
Syllabus: "Beyond Henrietta Lacks: Race and Medicine in 20th Century America" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Syllabus: "Beyond Henrietta Lacks: Race and Medicine in 20th Century America"
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: Susan Lederer, Ph.D.
Author: Liliana Busconi, Ph.D.
Abstract: This is a sample version of the syllabus for the project course, "Beyond Henrietta Lacks." It is based on the syllabus created in 2018 for the implementation semester (Spring 2019).
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://dean-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/beyond-henrietta-lacks-sample-syllabus.pdfPrimary URL Description: Direct link to the syllabus on the project's permanent website.
Secondary URL:
http://www.dean.edu/humanitiesgrantSecondary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click the tab "Sample Course Materials: Beyond Henrietta Lacks."
Audience: Undergraduate
Paper Assignment: "History of a Treatment: Development, Testing, Marketing, and Usage" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Paper Assignment: "History of a Treatment: Development, Testing, Marketing, and Usage"
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: Susan Lederer, Ph.D.
Author: Liliana Busconi, Ph.D.
Abstract: This assignment is modeled after the work done in Wailoo and Pemberton, "The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine" (2006). It involves students choosing/identifying a disease or condition, researching the science behind a treatment and exploring the cultural identity associated with this disease or condition. Students write and submit a paper and create a poster for a poster session that happens in lab at the end of the semester. The poster session is designed to emulate a biomedical conference.
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://dean-www.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/sample-paper-poster-assignment-history-of-a-treatm.pdfPrimary URL Description: Direct link to the assignment on the project's permanent website.
Secondary URL:
http://www.dean.edu/humanititesgrantSecondary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click on the tab: "Sample Course Materials: Beyond Henrietta Lacks"
Audience: Undergraduate
Three Sample Learning Modules from "History of Science" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Three Sample Learning Modules from "History of Science"
Author: David Brandon Dennis, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Abstract: The project's permanent website hosts three sample learning modules from "History of Science." These modules are (1) Early Modern "Big Science" & Spanish Empire Mapmaking; (2) 17th Century Cultures of Experimentation: Galileo vs. Boyle; and (3) The Race to Discover DNA's Structure. The website provides a narrative description of how lecture and lab are integrated, a lab manual, lecture materials and activities, as well as bibliographies for each module. We intend these to be open educational resources (OERs) for the teachers and students at other institutions to use.
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://www.dean.edu/academics/innovation-in-teaching/national-endowment-for-the-humanities-grant/humanities-grant/Primary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click the tab: "Sample Course Materials: History of Science"
Audience: Undergraduate
Three Sample Learning Modules from "Beyond Henrietta Lacks" (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Three Sample Learning Modules from "Beyond Henrietta Lacks"
Author: R.A. Lawson, Ph.D.
Author: Jessica M. Pisano, Ph.D.
Abstract: The project's permanent website hosts three sample learning modules from "Beyond Henrietta Lacks." These modules are (1) Human Classification in the Enlightenment; (2) Race, Slavery, and Spirometry; and (3) Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, and Bioethics. The website provides a narrative description of how lecture and lab are integrated, a lab manual, lecture materials and activities, as well as bibliographies for each module. We intend these to be open educational resources (OERs) for the teachers and students at other institutions to use.
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
http://www.dean.edu/humanitiesgrantPrimary URL Description: Link to the project's permanent website. Click the tab: "Sample Course Materials: Beyond Henrietta Lacks."
Audience: Undergraduate