Provocations and Inspirations
Educate to Innovate or Innovate to Educate?
May 31 2010
The Obama Administration’s “Educate to Innovate” initiative to train STEM teachers fails to address a deeper malaise in science education today resulting from the fragmentation of knowledge. This paper uses Alfred North Whitehead’s reflections on effective education to launch into a discussion of “Big History” as a possible solution to the challenges of promoting general science literacy and STEM careers.
Imagining a Civilization Recovery Program
May 30 2010
The point of this thought experiment, however, is not to contemplate death and disaster, but to imagine survivors and continued life. My question is what knowledge contained in what books of science, culture, and civilization would you most want to pass on to the surviving humans as they faced the prospect of adapting to this new environment and rebuilding their lives over many generations. You get to choose one book, not the whole Library of Congress.
Thank God for Evolution
May 30 2010
The book is a genre bender – mixing inspirational science writing, theological reflection, Biblical interpretation, and self-improvement manual into a sometimes distracting blend. Though based on “the Greatest Story ever told,” TGFE! itself lacks a strong narrative structure, which frankly makes the book easier to pick-up, skip-around, put-down and pick-up again. And that is how this book is best read and used. In that sense, it is a very useful book for adult religious education, youth ministries, and individual study. I foresee no adoption at the university level, but frankly in the pews is where the greater need is. That is not to say the sophisticates and stayed members of the Academe might not also benefit from reading something completely out-of-the-box.
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