"Contemplative Practice in the Science Classroom: Practical approaches to the impractical / Impractical approaches to the practical"
October 22, 2009 3 - 4 pm EDT
Michelle Francl, 2008 Contemplative Practice Fellow, is professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr and a writer for Nature Chemistry. She teaches writing and chemistry and embeds contemplative practices into both. Her courses demonstrate the value of this approach for learning and doing science, where practice provides nascent scientists with another set of ways to reflect on their work in relationship to the larger world. She explores the use of many practices adapted for classroom use including “stilling” (breath and body awareness), contemplative writing, “beholding” and lectio divina, and finds that a curriculum that includes contemplative practices has the potential not to merely produce science, but to form scientists.

tinyurl.com/contemplativescience: Michelle's website, containing practices and other resources for use in the classroom.