Keely Roth Wins INSCITES Fellowship

Post date: Oct 20, 2009 4:44:2 AM

Insights on Science and Technology for Society (INSCITES) is an educational program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) “with the goal of promoting scientific and technological literacy with a strong emphasis on social impact and responsibility.” The program is run by the California Nanonsystems Institute (CNSI) at UCSB and is designed by graduate students from diverse academic backgrounds (see (http://www.cnsi.ucsb.edu/inscites/ ). As an INSCITES Teaching Scholar, graduate student Keely Roth will receive a $12,000 stipend for one year, during which she will develop and teach a new integrative undergraduate course on the science, economics, history, and sociology of innovative technologies. “I'm really excited for this opportunity because it will give me the chance to design and teach a very important course while collaborating with graduate students from other departments and outside of the sciences. I hope to gain good teamwork experience and a broader perspective on the role of science and technology in society. Undergraduates need more opportunities like this course where science, technology and societal impact are integrated. Science doesn't happen in a vacuum.”

Evelyn Hu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of materials at UCSB and co-director of the California NanoSystems Institute, was one of seven national winners of the NSF’s Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2005. She used the award, approximately $300,000 over four years, to support her proposed project, INSCITES, which “will form teams of undergraduate and graduate Student Teaching Scholars from departments of science, engineering, political science, economics, and history. These teams will develop and teach a series of modular courses that focus on the science, economics and sociology of innovative technologies that are an intrinsic part of our everyday life. Grounded in both science and social science, these courses are intended to provide the basis of a ‘liberal arts’ of science” ( more here).

INSCITES “is aimed at first and second year students who are interested in the impacts of science and technology in society. This general education course is team taught by three Graduate Teaching Scholars from across engineering, science and social sciences. They collaborate with lead faculty from Materials Science and History to design both the curriculum and instructional format for the 10 week course that is supported by the National Science Foundation. INSCITES was taught for the first time in Spring 2007 and feedback indicated that the course had convinced the undergraduate students that they would like to take further courses outside their majors” (Fiona Goodchild, Abstract for an Invited Paper for the MAR08 Meeting of The American Physical Society; Fiona is the Education Director at the California Nanosystems Institute). It is quite an honor for Keely to be included among the three UCSB graduate students chosen as this year’s Graduate Teaching Scholars, and the department salutes her.

[From the http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/events/department-news/468/keely-roth-wins-inscites-fellowship/]