Jeremy Scott Hoffman attended the Cultivating Ensembles in STEM Education and Research (CESTEMER) conference in June 2015 in Berkeley and wrote about his experience for our blog.
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As a cell biologist who moved into the areas of computational science and teaching biologists about using computational methods to study and teach science, I am often assumed to have a strong math background. Despite my high-school accelerated classes (summer college courses), I just passed my college Calculus course. So, I gave up my thoughts on a career in mathematics. Fortunately, through intense and insistent conversations with computational scientists (mostly from physics) my colleagues and I create the conditions to make mathematics accessible and a place to play intellectually.
"Play" is a major aspect of the work improvscience does. The Association for the Study of Play will hold their 2016 conference March 16-19 at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. The conference's theme is "Play on the Move." We're excited to see work by many, including the host-organizer Dr. Carrie Lobman of Rutgers. Dr. Raquell Holmes learned directly from Dr.
What have over 2500 scientists experienced with improvscience? Sign up to learn more about our events and services through our newsletter. Our December 2015 e-newsletter highlights our year in review. Enjoy!
E-mail us at info@improvscience.org if you'd like to bring improvscience to your community.
In a busy life, there's those moments when you enjoy catching up with someone professionally. One such moment came when I spent some time with Eric Olson. Eric and I met as he researched who was providing improvisation-based science communication training. We found we have a common passion for building community and advancing science.
Improvscience led the first Science Stories workshop in October, as part of the All Stars Project in New York. The goal was simple enough: get scientists and people from poor communities talking together, learning from each other, and just generally, having positive interactions together!
This goal, however simple it may seem at first glance, is actually quite difficult.
Martha McCoy, a teacher, attended CESTEMER and said of her new tools:
"A conversation with one of my grad students took on a radical transformative shift for both of us this morning. She was bogged under with her research, feeling disgruntled about everything and blaming her students for not valuing their education. I did a 'yes and' with her and guided her into a whole new reality from the perspective of her students.
Improvisation, including improvscience, has a rich history at The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, better known as SC. Over the course of several years, the conference has featured improvisation in multiple ways. This trend will continue at this year's meeting in November.
Part of what was fun at CESTEMER was that we got to play, not just work! The Cultivating Ensembles in STEM Education and Research conference brought together creative people who do science and science outreach with teachers and artists.
I read Stephen Nachmanovitch's book Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art and enjoyed thinking about its relation to my experiences, work life, and play life!