Santa Clara University

The STS Pathway

Since all students are required to fulfill a pathway under the new core, CSTS is developing an STS Pathway. This will allow students to make linkages between STS topics and disciplinary perspectives. The learning goals associated with the Pathways are Integrative Learning and Intentional Learning. These are "meta-level" goals within the Pathway as a whole. SCU’s Center for Science, Technology and Society (CSTS) is presently assembling courses for the STS Pathway. The STS Pathway will be available to all majors, and syllabi from a wide range of academic disciplines are sought. STS Pathway courses can address any theme in science and technology, and do not have to fulfill the STS Learning Objectives. For example, an introductory biology or chemistry course that fulfilled the natural science requirement could be in the pathway, but would not fulfill the STS core requirement. Courses from the humanities and social sciences with science and technology themes are particularly welcomed for the pathway.

Call for syllabi to be considered for the STS Pathway

The Center for Science, Technology & Society invites faculty to submit syllabi to be considered for the STS Pathway as a part of the new core. The new core curriculum provides an exceptional opportunity to add value to Santa Clara University’s undergraduate education and to further distinguish the national reputation of our school. CSTS seeks to strengthen the teaching of Science, Technology & Society for our undergraduates.

STS is a core requirement with learning goals and objectives (see below), and most students will fulfill them by an STS course. In addition, CSTS is developing an STS pathway that will allow students to extend their knowledge of STS issues. The STS pathway will help students to make intentional, thoughtful, and reflective choices about the use of science and technology; to study the complexity of science, technology and society from a number of disciplinary or methodological perspectives; and to perceive connections and relationships among ideas shaping the role of science and technology in society. The STS Pathway will be available to all majors, and syllabi from a wide range of academic disciplines are sought.

Courses in the STS pathway do not have to be approved as stand-alone STS courses (i.e., they do not have to address all three STS learning objectives). For example, introductory courses in the natural sciences and in computing technologies would be welcomed in the STS pathway, even though they are not STS classes. Any course that fulfills the STS course requirement would automatically be considered for the STS pathway, but the reverse is not necessarily the case. Any course would be appropriate for the pathway that addresses themes in science, or technology, or social impacts of science and technology, or social demands for science and technology.

Courses from the humanities and social sciences about science and technology themes are particularly welcomed. Courses within the Schools of Business and Engineering that are only offered to their majors are welcomed. Students can take Pathways courses throughout their four years at Santa Clara. No more than two courses in a student’s Pathway may be taken in the same department. Two courses in any individual student's Pathway may fulfill the requirements for that student's major. Engineering students may include only one course taken in their major department.

To submit a syllabus for consideration in the STS Pathway please submit the following:

1. A syllabus (whether approved for the new core or not)
   
2. A separate document with the following information, as appropriate:
   
3. 1. The bulletin course description.
      
   2. The names of faculty who wish to participate in the STS Pathway (more than one faculty member may teach this course).
      
   3. An estimate of how many times per year this course will be taught.
      
   4. One or two sentences describing how this course can cultivate the Pathways learning goals (integrative and intentional learning) in the following thematic areas: Scientific Inquiry; Science & Technology; Critical Thinking; Complexity (these are the 4 STS Learning Goals).

Please submit this information to CSTS Assistant Director of Education for the Center for Science, Technology & Society, Keith Douglass Warner OFM, kwarner@scu.edu.