Educating the Whole Scientist

FAIN: AKA-305290-25

University of Dayton (Dayton, OH 45469-0001)
Viorel Paslaru (Project Director: September 2024 to present)
Yvonne Sun (Co Project Director: April 2025 to present)

A one-year project to plan a humanities-based general education curriculum and related minor for science majors.

To counter deficiencies in humanities education of science majors, we propose to: 1) outline an integrated and humanities-grounded curriculum through an equal partnership of educators from both the humanities and the sciences, aimed at educating well-rounded scientists and to help science majors become better scientists; and 2) develop a plan for an interdisciplinary minor to implement and support the curriculum long-term. To accomplish these aims, we will convene a collaborative group of colleagues from the humanities, sciences, and education sciences to articulate the goals of the integrated curriculum and design it. We will explore student motivations and interests using surveys and focus groups. Additionally, we will also investigate the feasibility and barriers to implementation in consultation with humanities and science faculty, university leadership, and faculty senate. Finally, we will also seek advice from external consultants to develop and evaluate the curriculum and minor.