Grant supports UC pilot program that couples science with humanities

Jacquart, however, wants to change that impression, by offering middle school students an after-school program that introduces them to another way of looking at science, through a philosopher’s eyes.

“My intent is to show the students who think of themselves as nonscientists that they do have a place in science, and that the humanities have a role in science as well,” says Jaquart who has been awarded a $50,000 Whiting Public Engagement Program grant to pilot a Philosophy & Science Fair Club for seventh and eighth graders at a Cincinnati Public School in fall 2023.

Although the program has a science foundation, it will more so focus on the humanistic aspects of science, she says. “It will be bidirectional that way,” says Jaquart whose research focus examines the role philosophy can play in general public understanding of science and in science education. For example, students may consider how scientists’ intellectual context and worldviews impact the scientific method and process of discovery or the role trust plays in the public’s understanding of scientific findings.

Jacquart’s initiative will be carried out through the UC Center for Public Engagement with Science, in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative. The groups will work to create lesson plans designed to introduce students to the philosophical and other humanistic aspects of science by identifying a theme, such as space exploration or climate change, and then deploying philosophical methods of inquiry to deeply investigate it. She will teach the pilot program with graduate student assistance.