A New Course: "The Social Dimensions of Science"

这项建议旨在开发和实施一个创新的，入门级（第二年）的多学科课程，专门面向未来的SEM研究人员和教师谁拥有强大的科学和数学背景的科学的社会层面。该课程旨在实现两个主要目标：1）帮助学生意识到科学不是在真空中发生的，而是在一个由与社会，文化，政治，经济和个人方面有关的复杂因素塑造的背景下运作; 2）通过提供传统学术指导和“实地经验”的课程来提供这种认识学生将这些因素与活跃的科学家的工作以及科学家的个人经历联系起来。该课程将涉及各个方面的跨学科考试，以及一个实地项目，在该项目中，学生将学术内容与布鲁克海文国家实验室科学家的真实的正在进行的科学/技术实践联系起来。通过这种联系，他们将了解科学如何在“真实的世界”中运作，并更有效地为未来的科学和技术环境做好准备。 社会维度课程旨在解决典型的本科SEM课程的局限性，该课程主要旨在传授基于学科的基础和技术技能，但不为学生准备真实的世界，其中科学具有历史，功能与社会的价值观和活动有关，从认为其产品有益的赞助人那里获得支持，并且是由专注于他们的工作并且在社会中介的“范式”内或反对社会中介的“范式”操作的个人来执行的。“虽然包括斯托尼布鲁克在内的大多数大学都有旨在拓宽学生视野的通识教育要求，但它们往往提供一系列选择，理科学生很少能找到满足他们了解自己学科需要的课程。拟议的课程旨在填补这一空白。该课程在与大学以外的科学家建立伙伴关系方面具有创新性，以作为教师和榜样。在强调社会问题时，它应特别有利于妇女和少数群体成员。此外，由于所有的BNL科学家都是女性，学生们将深入了解女性在SEM环境中的独特地位，以及成功女性如何应对或适应这些环境。 其他相关物体包括：1）培养斯托尼布鲁克的骨干教师和BNL的科学家在关键学科（SEM，哲学，政治学，社会学，历史）谁赞同拟议的课程的跨学科的推力，是由它所解决的问题的知识，并有能力和致力于教学; 2）促进和促进与BNL和其他区域研究的科学家正在进行的合作教学和指导安排;发展机构的方式，利用他们独特的观点和个人的历史，丰富科学家的经验，以及那些学生;和3）创建一个模型，使用多学科和协作的方法，这可以很容易地融入常规的斯托尼布鲁克SEM课程，并复制或改编为SEM学生在其他大学。

This proposal seeks to develop and implement an innovative, introductory-level (second year) multidisciplinary course on The Social Dimensions of Science geared specifically for prospective SEM researchers and teachers who have strong science and math backgrounds. The course will be designed to accomplish two primary objectives: 1) help students become aware that science does not occur within a vacuum, but operates within a context that is shaped by a complex array of factors relating to societal, cultural, political, economic and personal aspects; and 2) provide this awareness through a curriculum that provides traditional academic instruction and a "field experience" in which students relate these factors to work by active scientists, as well as to the scientists' personal experiences. The course will involve an interdisciplinary examination of various aspects, as well as a field project in which students link the academic content with the real, going scientific/technological practice of scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Through such linkage, they will gain an appreciation of how science operates in a "real world" context and be more effectively prepared for the scientific and technical environments of the future. The Social Dimensions course seeks to address the limitations of typical undergraduate SEM curricula, which seek primarily to impart a disciplinary-based foundation and technical skills, but do not prepare students for the real world in which science has a history, functions in relation to society's values and activities, derives its support from patrons who perceive its product as beneficial, and is carried out by individual human beings who are absorbed and preoccupied by their work and who operate within or against socially-mediated "paradigms." While most universities, including Stony Brook, have general education requirements intended to broaden students' perspectives, they tend to offer a spectrum of choices from which science students rarely find courses tha t fill their need to understand their own discipline. The proposed course seeks to fill this gap. The course is innovative in its establishment of partnerships with scientists outside of the university to serve as teachers and role models. In its emphasis on social issues, its should be especially beneficial to women and minority members. Moreover, since all of the BNL scientists are women, the students will gain insight into the unique position of women in SEM environments and into ways successful women have responded or accommodated themselves to these environments. Other related objects are: 1) to train a cadre of Stony Brook faculty and BNL scientists in key disciplines (SEM, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, History) who endorse the interdisciplinary thrust of the proposed course, are knowledgeable of the issues being addressed by it, and are capable and committed to teaching it; 2) to foster and facilitate ongoing collaborative teaching and mentoring arrangements with scientists at BNL and other regional research/development establishments in ways that use their unique perspectives and personal histories and enrich the scientists' experiences as well as those of the students; and 3) to create a model, using a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach, that can be readily integrated into the regular Stony Brook SEM curriculum and replicated or adapted for SEM students at other universities.