Incorporating Art in Teaching Physics, Invited Speaker, College of William and Mary, Virtual PhysicsFest, October 2020
“For those of us who are neither physicists nor artists, it’s easy to think that there is no Venn-diagram overlap between physics and art. But the work of Professor Stephanie Bailey aims to remind us that there are ways to build bridges between the two. To quote Dannie Dinh, the Special Assistant ‘ to the director of International Research Institute for Climate and Society, “Visual art has the power to spark conversations, to envision ideas and concepts, to make the intangible tangible, to inject the issues into our mainstream culture. The science community is trained to find answers and solutions in numbers and figures, but it also faces the challenging task of communicating and relaying scientific findings to policy makers, stakeholders, voters and other nonscientific communities who can pursue policies and actions based on the information.” Professor Bailey will discuss the importance of integrating art into the science curriculum and share her recent work, including a) a recently published book to make introductory physics more accessible and to increase interest in the subject by incorporating art-based teaching at the undergraduate level, b) a service-learning project in which students were tasked with designing and building musical instruments to donate to a K-6 school in Southern Leyte, Philippines, c) a collaboration between local artists and physics graduate students to inspire exciting art based on scientific ideas that resulted in a month-long gallery exhibit, d) a project in which students were challenged to turn a room into a camera obscura, e) a project in which students carved vegetables into playable musical instruments, and f) an art installation that highlights the ubiquity of motors.”
Fusion Panel, Moderator, University of California Santa Cruz, March 2019
“Fusion” matched local Santa Cruz artists with physics faculty or graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz to work together to create new art. This is a video of the panel discussion of participating artists and physicists that was held on Saturday, March 16, 2019.
This collaboration aimed to enable people to access and engage with physics through art and to think about the role physics plays in their lives and the world at large. It provided meaningful creative and intellectual experiences for the general public and for participating artists and scientists. This was a way to bridge local community with UC Santa Cruz and foster innovative exchange between two of Santa Cruz’s great cultural strengths—our thriving scientific and artistic communities. It inspired exciting art based on scientific ideas, fostered stronger communication skills among our physicists resulting from engagement with a non-specialist, challenged our physicists to approach their science in a slightly different way (through the visual arts), integrated art and science such that they feed back and forth to each other, enriching each other, and increased recognition of the mutual benefits of art and science.
The outcome of these collaborations was displayed as a group exhibition that invited the public to engage with our physicists and artists. The exhibition was at the R. Blitzer Gallery during the month of March 2019 and was curated by participating artist Tauna Coulson.
Teaching Careers for STEM Scientists, Moderator, UC Irvine GPS-STEM, November 2020
“GPS-STEM (Previously, GPS-BIOMED https://gps.bio.uci.edu) is a program for UCI graduate students and postdocs in STEM. We aim to better prepare our scientists for a variety of careers within the biomedical research workforce, and empower them to become not only skilled researchers, but also polished professionals. We work to create, identify and support innovative approaches to broaden graduate and postdoctoral training.”
Covid-19: An Opportunity to Drive the Undergraduate Introductory Physics Curriculum toward Change, Contributed Talk, AAPT Annual Meeting, July 2020
“Given the development of the Covid-19 global pandemic during the Spring semester of 2020, proctoring an in person, comprehensive, written final was no longer an option. While I considered the alternatives, I began to question the learning goals of the course and the value of a traditional final exam. I want my students to continue to think about the course material outside the classroom, to gain a deeper appreciation of the subject, and to reflect on the course as a meaningful and influential life experience. To bring meaning, there must be elements of community, civic responsibility, and personal growth. To that end, students were matched with local seniors, those more vulnerable to loneliness due to the pandemic. They met with their senior via Zoom to discuss connections between course material and the current social, economic, and political context as well as the current coronavirus pandemic and public health in general.”
Millipede Walk, Science Consultant, Wonder Science, October 2020
“The traveling wave in a millipede’s walk is best seen in slow-motion macro as it moves from back to front of the invertebrate’s exoskeleton. Millipedes have the most legs of any animal on Earth. Unlock the mysteries of the traveling wave in the millipede walk.
The workings of the walk involve a specific network of neurons called central pattern generators (CPGs) that produce a sequence of automatic muscle movements. This rhythm repeating over time is called a metachronal rhythm. Most arthropods walk this way, but the millipede’s plenitude of legs makes the pattern clearly visible.
Directed and edited by Danielle Parsons for Wonder Science. Produced in collaboration with Radiant Images and IDT Vision. Music by Johnny Woods.”