From the earliest decisions about survival to contemporary technical and scientific innovations, humans have applied creativity to decision making and problem solving. However, in contemporary academic education, this innate creativity has not been emphasized in disciplines beyond the arts and humanities. Particularly, once students specialize in science, they are taught that science is not creative and mainly consists of memorizing facts. This narrows the range of students who pursue science, limits scientific discovery, and consequently leads to missed solutions to critical social problems where scientific discovery can help. In this talk, I will argue that to foster a diverse and creative student body in the sciences we must be “expansive”: we can use a lens of creativity to generate ideas and actions for equity in STEM secondary and post-secondary education. I will highlight how this promotes transformative opportunities, not only for learners, but for educators, too.
What Do Creativity and Equity Have to Do with STEM Education?
Host: Ania Harlick