Concluding Essay: Teaching Science and Culture in Pandemic Times
How this website came to exist
In the final days of 2019, scientists in Wuhan, China found something that no one had ever seen before, that likely had never existed before, but would quickly change the world. Since scientists seek to discover new facts, this could have been a joyous occasion, but in this case, it was the opposite. Their methods had uncovered a fact no one wanted to be true: a new virus was making people very sick.Halfway around the world from where the coronavirus was discovered, we were instructors and students in four sections of a course Michigan State University calls “Introduction to the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science,” a first-year writing course that focuses on examining relationships between science and culture. (You can check out our syllabus here.) Before spring break, we had focused on investigating scientific culture and how scientists make knowledge. We talked about how much slower, more collaborative, and more expensive science is than it appears in our popular culture, in no small part because of the inherent challenges of producing verifiable knowledge about things that are new, unstable, or controversial—like novel coronaviruses.
After spring break, we were starting to examine how scientific knowledge travels in culture. In the second half of the course, we look at how scientific knowledge is communicated through everyday life, but we are keen to recognize that science’s audiences are diverse. How does a matter of fact produced in a lab become a matter of concern in our private, public, and political lives? Why is science, despite its authority, often contested?
In normal times, in order to address these questions, our students would work in small groups to investigate a scientific matter of concern—an issue that brings together diverse stakeholders who either conflict or collaborate based on their perspective on a matter. Each team selects one issue, such as vaccines, NFL helmets, microbeads, conversion therapy, or water pumping rights, and makes a website exploring different perspectives based on research.
But we returned from spring break to find that we were not in normal times. On March 11, 2020, the same day that the WHO declared the pandemic, MSU moved to remote instruction. Teaching during the outbreak of a pandemic, we found ourselves immersed in life-threatening matters of concern on a scale we had never experienced before. Sheltered in place, the mediated nature of scientific knowledge was thrown into vivid relief as almost all forms of communication suddenly had the potential to impact public health. While the virus itself might be invisible, it was simultaneously everywhere and affecting everyone.
As members of Lyman Briggs College, a residential college for undergraduate science education, we want to encourage our science students to be responsible experts and global citizens. We asked ourselves how we could balance our commitment to our original course goals against a quickly changing living and learning environment, with our community suddenly dispersed. COVID-19 as a case clearly exemplifies the complexity of science’s role in society that we want our students to appreciate as they embark on their educational journeys. Moreover, we were all living through it. Informed and inspired by work in critical pedagogy, we had a good reason to believe that we would benefit from grappling with the pandemic together, using both our course concepts and our collective experiences to gain understanding within the chaos.
Given this situation, we decided to change our plan. Instead of many websites, we would make one website dedicated to the CoVID-19 pandemic. Yet, we acknowledged that there are risks in taking on a dangerous and pervasive topic and we knew that we needed to approach the assignment with care. Certainly, we risked overexposure to the topic at a time when it already seemed inescapable. Worse, we could do real harm if we spoke without thinking, especially about the experiences of vulnerable and marginalized groups. This pandemic is very close to all of us, and none of us has the privilege to sit apart. But because some are affected more deeply than others, or in ways that some others may not imagine, we must take great care in using COVID-19 as a learning opportunity not to be exploitative of the suffering of others. Indeed, our intention with this project is to reveal those differences of perspective by engaging carefully with primary sources that give them voice.
In order to create our website, we and our students learned how to use Scalar, a digital humanities tool designed for collaboratively building curated media archives. Scalar allowed us to work together and share our perspective sources as embedded media. Scalar’s creators, the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture at the University of Southern California, not only provided lots of great, openly available documentation on how to use the tools, but also gave us direct support when we suddenly needed a scalable tool for our project in March. Working with Scalar enabled us to work collaboratively to collect the many, many perspectives on an invisible threat.
The constraints of the semester system entail that this website necessarily only captures a limited window into the story of this pandemic. As instructors, we met together via Zoom to redesign the assignment within days of moving to online teaching, and then announced it to our students at the end of March, only two weeks into our new classroom format. To conduct research for their pages, students studied perspectives as they emerged in real time, gathering data until the project was due at the end of April, as classes came to a close. Of course much has happened since then that is not captured in this website.
Nevertheless, the responses we received from the students about their learning experience of making this website showed us the value of the effort that we undertook together. By making themselves open to exploring new perspectives, our students working not only developed empathy for the experiences of others, but have also come to understand a key lesson of feminist standpoint theory: that what each of sees is affected by where we stand. As members of society, our values, interests, and networks of trust affect the facts that matter most to us. Though our different perspectives lead to all manner of conflicts and controversy, they also hold the possibility of improving humanity’s overall store of knowledge: Ironically, the most “objective” view of the world is the one that includes as many perspectives as possible.
Through this project, I learned the importance of perspective. Everyone has their own perspective that is individual to themselves and it takes a lot to understand a perspective that isn’t your own, and that’s why it is important to keep an open mind. -OC
I learned a great deal from this project. The first lesson I learned is that we can create something wonderful even during times of great crisis. I realized the different domains of what is meant by a perspective and how one can present it in a good way … I also learned how to work in continuous stress and use my time and resources to the fullest despite the many hurdles. I built upon my skills of unpacking a fact and so I can now check is someone’s statement is true or not. In my journey, I also learned how to connect my own understanding of HPS to the project. All in all, I have started asking more and more questions and I can truly say that I am now “confused at a deeper level” than before I started the project. -TM
This project helped me learn about a group of people that doesn’t always cross my mind. It taught me that there are many people who live very different lives than I do. Because of that, we probably think very differently, and that’s really cool. -SL
Overall this project was a great learning experience. This project allowed me to see the personal aspects of [my perspective group]. On the internet, I would always see articles on how the pandemic impacts the US economy as a whole. Through this project, I was able to see the impact this pandemic has on the individual groups in the economy, rather than just treating them as statistical numbers reported by the news. It allowed me to see a much personal and in-depth view of the entire situation. I also learned research skills such as fact-checking sources, which enabled me to be more skeptical of the "facts" that are circulating the internet and prevent the further spread of misinformation. -SL
I learned how to … use my passion to enhance a paper that means a lot to me. Because the content I was creating was something that I have experienced first-hand, I used that to fuel my essay. Of course, I needed to use the main source as the perspective and use my own perspective as evidence, so writing this paper required me to restrain myself as well. I learned a lot about having the ability to make a paper completely biased, but have to make sure that I'm not turning a blind eye to the possibility that my own perspective isn't the same as everyone. -JM
This is the project I learned the most from this semester. -JS
One of the major things that this project enlightened me too was how many opinions and sides that there really are for each problem. -MK
I think what I learned most is the fact that every perspective has a reason for being that way. If we don’t look into perspectives of different groups we start to assume a lot of things and sometimes forget that people’s viewpoints are there for a reason. It’s also really important to know where to look for reliable sources that could further your understanding of certain subjects. Without reliable sources a lot of misinformation can easily be spread. - IJ
From this project I realized how many different perspectives there are in the world. We barely scratched the surface with this website. Having so many perspectives around the world is truly beautiful. It helps foster ideas, bring about change, and allows people to be creative. It also made me think about diversity and how diversity can also mean a difference in occupation or interests. Before this project I really only thought diversity was about things like race, gender, social class, etc, and it is, but there’s also so much more that makes us diverse. -AD
This project opened my eyes tremendously. I learned that wherever you are someone has it worse. Not one person sees this pandemic in the same view because we all associate with different groups. This virus has separated us physically and has caused an immense amount of issues but we will all work together to come through and help each other out. -NR
This project was enjoyable and useful for me. Ithink it was beneficial for me to explore the perspectives and viewpoints of people from a group that doesn’t include me. I think it is important for not only students, but for all people to expand their narrow viewpoints on issues such as the pandemic. Skills and thought processes used in this project can be utilized by myself and others for many other aspects and events in our lives in the future. - RM
This was honestly one of the most eye-opening projects I’ve done all year. I feel accomplished to be able to voice someone else’s perspective and get their voice heard, while still Being able to write in my own style. I had never quite written an essay based off of someone else’s beliefs, so it was inspiring to know and learn how to do so. -AK
There was a lot to be learned from this project. In addition to the more scientific information I found, I also got to learn a lot about how another group of people is responding to the pandemic. So much of the time we focus on ourselves and how we’re feeling that we’re not necessarily aware of the others around us. I liked being able to get some insight into how other people are feeling during this time. -EP
Although the project’s idea was made on the spot, it was one of the most interesting I have ever done. It comprises a real-world issue and a research project into one. I will enjoy reading all the other perspectives on the matter. This HPS projects were my favorite to do out of any class I have ever took, and I look forward to implementing the skills I have learned into future classes. -LS
This project was very unique to anything I have done before and allowed me to grow and improve my writing skills. I enjoyed being able to learn about and analyze something extremely relevant to all of our lives currently because it helped me stay informed while exploring my perspective. I also enjoyed how all of the students were able to explore a perspective they were interested in and that was unique to everyone else’s. The website is now very diverse and something I am proud to show my friends and family. - KS
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A central theme of our course is that science does not happen in isolation, but rather is a deeply collaborative enterprise. It takes a community to build new knowledge and change the world. Though this pandemic-disrupted semester was both emotionally and materially challenging, we as instructors are deeply grateful for how our students came together to build this project. It might not change the world, but we hope this experience of collaborative inquiry helped them understand it a little better and maybe even gain the tools to share this understanding with others.
Marisa Brandt
Isaac Record
Arthur Ward
Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University
May 2020