Over the past twenty-four years, the Science Institute has developed a unique and highly successful method of teaching science to non-scientists that integrates science and mathematics with art, music, drama, dance, sports, and cultural backgrounds (Lerman, 1986a; Lerman, 1986b). These methods have already been adopted by many institutions in Chicago, throughout the U.S., and around the world, in settings ranging from the formal to the informal, and from elementary school to university levels. Only by developing different methods of teaching science, mathematics and technology, and by cultivating critical thinking instead of relying on rote memorization, will we be able to avoid forming a class society that will be divided – not by royalty - but by knowledge of science, mathematics and technology.
These alternative methods of teaching are complimented by alternative methods of assessment. Students can demonstrate their knowledge in science, mathematics and technology using the media of their choice, such as art (Hoffmann and Torrence: 1993), music, dance, drama, animation, sports, and interactive multimedia (Lerman, 2000; Lerman, 2001).

Figures 1 and 2: Images from "Mitosis: A Dance" choreographed by Dia Bubalo, showing the activity of DNA before and after the cell nucleus splits into two.

The results have been varied and impressive. For example, a music major's song about chemical reactions in the brain, depression, and antidepressant drugs has received national acclaim. Abstract scientific concepts have been made concrete through painting and sculpture. Other students choreographed and performed a dance representing the separation and combination of DNA during mitosis (see figures 1 and 2).
A children's program on the ozone layer and environmental responsibility, titled "Ozone the Clown" was created by a group of theater, marketing, and television majors. "Ozone the Clown" (whose facial makeup consists of an "O" and a "3") discusses ozone depletion using simple items such as balloons, puppets, and a tattered umbrella to represent molecules, chemical reactions and the ozone layer (see figure 3).

Figure 3: Columbia College student Jason Krueger, as "Ozone the Clown", uses balloons to demonstrate the molecular structure of ozone, and uses a tatterd umbrella to represent Earth's ozone layer in a presentation for children.

The star-crossed lovers, sodium and chlorine, have been immortalized on videotape in a drama written, acted, and filmed by Columbia College students, as a mock Shakespearean tragedy ala Romeo and Juliet, with apologies to W. Shakespeare. Sodium, in the role of Romeo, gives his electron to Chorine (in the role of Juliet) to make her his wife and, subsequently, forms table salt. However, because this is a Shakespearean tragedy, Water takes over the duo and their bond breaks ("For never was a story more dark and glum, than that of Chlorine and her Sodium") (Lerman, 1988). Another group of theater and television students combined their talents to create "The Bondfather" — a theatrical skit depicting a distraught mother who seeks out the intervention of Don Mendeleev (the Bondfather) in dissolving the ionic bond which her gaseous daughter, Chlorina, has formed with a boy named Sodium (see figure 4).

Figure 4: In this scene from "The Bondfather", Don Mendeleev (Eddie Sircher consults a mother (Rebekah Lewis) horrified by her daughter's ionic bond.

Another project communicating ionic bonds was presented through dance. A group of dancers representing halogens and another group representing alkali metals meet in a fictional high school dance, where they interact and form ionic bonds. The school deans (Oxygen and two Hydrogens) do not approve of these unions and combine their efforts to break the newly-formed bonds (see figures 5 and 6).

Figures 5 and 6: "Periodic Table" dance, choreographed by Heidi Baumann Renteria, and performed by middle school students, Demonstrating the ionic bond.

Students in the Science Institute's "Crime Lab Chemistry" class use the Science Institute's state-ofthe- art analytical laboratory. Students learn to solve a crime through the application of science. An art student in this class demonstrated in a poster everything she had to examine and test in order to solve the crime: body fluid, blood, lipstick, arson, fibers, fingerprints, DNA, chemicals, etc. (see figure 7).

Figure 7: "Forensics" poster by Teresa Crout, depicting the various experiments and tests she needed to perform in order to solve the crime. (cover figure)

With assistance from the National Science Foundation, the Science Institute has developed a Science Visualization and Communications Laboratory, which allows students to explore new technologies in preparing and presenting their projects. 2D and 3D animations were employed in visualizing and presenting scientific concepts such as the chemical bond, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, and fission reactions. The ionic bond formed between Sodium and Chlorine was also explored in "Ionic Bondage", a computer-animated project showing the failed attempts of various chemical elements in trying to stop rampaging Table Salt from destroying the beloved land of Periodia - until Oxygen and the two Hydrogen Twins team up and dissolve the monster (see figure 8).

Figure 8: Columbia College student Joe Nelson created his "Ionic Bondage" animated project in the Science Institute's Visualization and C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Laboratory.

Science Institute students are encouraged to use the tools of their majors, their personal interests and their cultural backgrounds in the production of their projects. These can be decidedly "hi-tech", "low-tech" or even "no-tech", as can be seen in two different projects which communicated the same concept - one student created a computer animation to visualize the fission of a nucleus by neutron bombardment as part of his project on the development of the atomic bomb, while another student choreographed a dance for middle school children to represent the same concept (see figure 9).

Figure 9: The top image represents a neutron about to split a uranium nucleus from a computer –animated video titled "Unforgettable Fire". The same process is again depicted in the bottom image - a small cluster of dancers represent the nucleus, and a single airborne dancer represents the neutron.

Students retain their knowledge of science many years after they graduate, and they attribute this accomplishment to the fact that they used art, music, dance and drama to internalize the learning process (Kostecka, Lerman and Angelos, 1996; Lerman, 2000; Lerman, 2001).
Howard Gardner, from Harvard University, developed the Theory of the Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1993). He explained that teaching is usually directed toward the logic intelligence, and that people such as dancer Martha Graham, musician Stravinsky, and artist Pablo Picasso all have "talents". According to Gardner's Theory, what these individuals have is different intelligences, and if we adjust our teaching to fit "The Multiple Intelligences", we will be able to teach anything to anybody. Thus, Howard Gardner has successfully put into educational terms the experiences of the Science Institute.

The success of these methods developed in the Science Institute, prompted the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award a research grant to Columbia College, Princeton University and Indiana University, in order to develop a joint environmental science curriculum, which will adopt within the three institutions, the teaching methods developed at the Science Institute at Columbia College for non-science majors. The rationale behind this collaboration is that a curriculum designed to fit the three very different types of institutions should produce a model curriculum readily adaptable for almost any institution of higher education, traditional or non-traditional: Columbia College is an urban, four-year, open-admissions college with a high proportion of underprivileged, low-income, inner-city students; Indiana University is a large state school; and Princeton University is a private university which accepts only the top five percent of high school students (Lerman: 1998). This curriculum was adopted by many universities in the U.S. and abroad. These courses which integrate science, mathematics and technology with the arts have made it possible to make science, mathematics and technology education accessible to all, independent of race, gender, economic background, and cultural backgrounds.

Scientific accuracy is fundamental to this approach, and is never sacrificed. Unfortunately, these innovative methods are sometimes misused and the resultant projects do not reflect objective, accurate science. It is therefore paramount to understand how to utilize the methods developed at the Science Institute in teaching, learning and assessing science, technology and mathematics, without sacrificing the accuracy and objectivity for which science, mathematics and technology stand.

The Chicago Public School system is the third largest public school system in the U.S.; its demographic and economic diversity is representative of the diverse population of America. During the past eleven years, the Science Institute has served approximately 600 teachers who, in turn, teach tens of thousands of students per year. This introduction of the Science Institute's methods into the Chicago Public School system has led to a dramatic increase in the science level of teachers and students as well as an increase in the amount of time teachers devote to science in the classroom. Chicago Public School teachers who participate in Science Institute workshops and employ these methods in their classes have reported that seventh and eighth grade children (who previously would "never come close to the chemistry lab") now prefer to stay after school in chemistry clubs, rather than attending gym class. Many of these students have chosen to attend high schools which specialize in science and mathematics - which never happened before in these teachers’ experience. There is a remarkable increase of teachers classroom practices after the workshops in conducting science experiments daily or almost every day and discussing with their students science careers weekly, compared to practices before the workshop and compared to national averages.

These methods have proven particularly effective at what our experience demonstrates are the crucial ages: the fifth grade (before children enter middle school), and the eighth grade (before children enter high school). The achievement of students whose teachers attended our workshops were much higher than those of students in the same school whose teachers did not attend our workshops. In order to assure the best science, mathematics and technology education for all, the Science Institute proposes to expand the model it has developed in order to meet the educational needs of the ever-growing world population.

References:

• Lerman, Z. 1986. Chemistry for Art and Communication Students: J. Chem. Ed., 63, 142.
• Lerman, Z. M. 1986. Energy for Art and Communication Students: J. Chem. Ed., 63, 520.
• Lerman, Z. M. 1988. "Chemistry Without Tears: Teaching Chemistry Through Music, Drama, Art and Sports" in Science Learning in the Informal Setting Symposium Proceedings, P. Heltne and L. Marquardt, editors: The Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago.
• Gardner, H. 1993. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Hoffmann, R. and V. Torrence. 1993. Chemistry Imagined: Reflections on Science. Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Kostecka, K. S., Lerman, Z. M., and Angelos, S. A. 1996. Use of Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy in Non-Science Major Course Laboratory Experiments. J. Chem. Ed., 73 (6), 565-566.
• Lerman, Z. 1998. Teaching Environmental Science to Non-science Majors. 15th International Conference on Chemical Education "Chemistry & Global Environmental Changes," Cairo, Egypt.
• Lerman, Z. 2000. Chemistry for the People who will Shape our Future. Chemical Education Journal, 4, (1), Special Issue on the 8ACC Symposium on Chemical Education; http://chem.sci.utsunomiya.ac.jp/v4n1/indexE.html
• Lerman, Z. M. 2001. Visualizing the Chemical Bond. Chemical Education Journal, 5, (1), Special Issue on Pacifichem 2000; http://ce.t.soka.ac.jp/cei/v2n1/ZLerman/index.html.