Finding Questions Everywhere

NY Times: An Infusion of Science Where the Arts Reign

In this interesting New York Times article, author Lisa Foderaro discusses Bard College's freshman student Liza Batkin, who is a dancer with an interest in philosophy and literature. However, Liza is being required to spend 2.5 weeks of her winter break taking a required science course (specifically infectious disease). Liza was initially intimidated and frustrated by the fact that she had to take a science course, something she did not appear to be interested in initially. However, Bard--a school with an "arty bent"--now requires Freshmen to take a science course even if their major is not related, in order to promote "learning for learning's sake" as well as to create well-rounded citizens. The catch is that the course does not administer credit nor grades, but rather tries to hook students with interesting content and a more open-ended assessment, such as a final project that allows students to incorporate the arts. Bard hopes that through this program, the university will fulfill its responsibility to create well-rounded citizens as well as battle the United State's science slump.

This article has the potential to inspire some very interesting research questions. A topic that comes to my mind immediately, especially after being an art appreciation TA, is how can art be used to create well-rounded citizens in those non-art majors? Or maybe even: how does a fine arts requirement create well-rounded citizens?

I know these are broad questions in and of themselves, but it could be narrowed to investigate students' broader understanding of science, economic, social, etc. concepts when required to take a fine arts course versus when not required to take a fine arts course. I would argue that it is vital that the fine arts course be focused on student-centered, highly conceptual ideas in order to be most relevant to non-art majors (for example, focusing on student-art interactions, conceptual frameworks, multiculturalism, etc.).

My hope is that one would find that students who took a fine arts course would have an increased ability to shift the lens through which they investigate topics, or perhaps be able to better analyze big ideas and conceptual/cultural foundations of a topic, be it scientific, economic, social, artistic, or otherwise.