Innovation and Social Justice
Many young people pursue professions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) because they want to make the world a better place. But STEM curricula tend to focus on building technical competence. They squeeze out the other kinds of knowledge, skills, and experience that are also needed to build a better world.
We want to bridge this gap. This involves equipping future engineers, scientists, and other innovators with evidence-based understandings of how technology changes the world, rigorous ways of defining “a better world,” and experience applying these tools to real-world design problems.
We developed an undergraduate course at Drexel University, “Innovation and Social Justice” (SCTS 202), taught by Professor Gwen Ottinger.
We created a video about the unequal effects of climate change. Climate change is one of the most important opportunities for innovation that moves us toward a more just world. Our video summarizes the unequal effects of climate change and climate policy in the US to point out the need for innovative, justice-oriented solutions.
We continue to look for opportunities to practice anti-racism in SCTS 202, including by incorporating writing by scholars of color.
We hope to create a book based on the SCTS 202 curriculum, to make its unique approach available to students and professors from all over the world.