--- title: Education in 21st Century: How to Be More Innovative description: Try connecting the dots between science and humanities canonical: https://time.com/3978734/innovative-education-science-humanities/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-01T14:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:38:18.454Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Be More Innovative in 21st Century Learning og:description: Try connecting the dots between science and humanities og:url: https://time.com/3978734/innovative-education-science-humanities/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb42574714a6da78/69885d37428a9e24afcce6ac/jigsaw-puzzle-pieces.jpg?branch=production&width=358&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 358 og:image:height: 201 og:image:alt: jigsaw-puzzle-pieces og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Be More Innovative in 21st Century Learning twitter:description: Try connecting the dots between science and humanities twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb42574714a6da78/69885d37428a9e24afcce6ac/jigsaw-puzzle-pieces.jpg?branch=production&width=358&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How To Be More Innovative in 21st Century Learning > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=9e70e477-8fbe-4942-88ca-a29b170bc3aa&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Kate Beaton's Advice for Kids Who Want to be Cartoonists [Watch (HLS stream): Kate Beaton's Advice for Kids Who Want to be Cartoonists](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DNOpAnYk.m3u8) (2:34)  _Published 2015-07-07. The "Hark! A Vagrant!" creator talks about her new children's book "The Princess and the Pony" and what she learned over the course of becoming a cartoonist._ by [Sophia Krzys Accord](https://time.com/author/sophia-krzys-accord/), [Kevin S Jones](https://time.com/author/kevin-s-jones/) and [Susan D Gillespie, University of Florida / The Conversation](https://time.com/author/susan-d-gillespie/) Aug 1, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  jigsaw puzzle - matching pieces jigsaw puzzle - matching pieces Getty Images by [Sophia Krzys Accord](https://time.com/author/sophia-krzys-accord/), [Kevin S Jones](https://time.com/author/kevin-s-jones/) and [Susan D Gillespie, University of Florida / The Conversation](https://time.com/author/susan-d-gillespie/) Aug 1, 2015 2:00 PM UTC Today’s college students may benefit from an exciting array of subjects to study. But they seem to miss the most important education of all: how to relate their specialization to others in an increasingly interconnected world. The [National Academy of Engineering](http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12187/changing-the-conversation-messages-for-improving-public-understanding-of-engineering) has categorically stated that today’s engineers need to be more than individuals who simply “like math and science.” They must be “creative problem-solvers” who help “shape our future” by improving our “health, happiness, and safety.” And in 2001, the [engineering accreditation body ABET](http://www.abet.org/) added [a new criterion](http://www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-engineering-programs-2015-2016/) so as to ensure that students get “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context.” The point is that the connections between humanities and science have been lost in today’s separation of disciplines. Indeed, a [recent report](https://www.amacad.org/content/research/dataForumEssay.aspx?i=1571) by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences discovered that humanities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) training majors largely dwell in different silos. So, where and how did we lose our way? And how can educators and institutions change things? **Separation of disciplines** The founders of the [National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)](http://www.neh.gov/) were well aware of the critical nature of this interdependence. When the NEH and the [National Science Foundation (NSF)](http://www.nsf.gov/) were established in the 1950s and ‘60s, the [NEH founders wrote](https://www.acls.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/NEH/1964%5FCommission%5Fon%5Fthe%5FHumanities.pdf): --- > “” --- These founders, hailing from leading universities as well as the US Atomic Energy Commission, IBM Corp and New York Life Insurance, knew that connecting the humanities and sciences helps us make informed judgments about our control of nature, ourselves and our destiny. But, since the 1980s, political rhetoric has emphasized the need for less humanities and more STEM education. STEM is painted as a more profitable investment, in terms of job creation and research dollars generated. A notable example is the Obama administration’s [“Race to the Top” initiative](https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/race-to-the-top), which both isolates and prioritizes the STEM disciplines from the humanities, arts and social sciences. This rhetoric is also evident in the creation of separate political education organizations such as the bipartisan [STEM Education Caucus](http://stemedcaucus2.org/) founded several years ago by congressional representatives to strengthen STEM education from kindergarten to the workforce. This separation of disciplines actually hurts education, and it also hurts our ability to innovate and solve big problems. Connecting STEM with humanities doesn’t just provide the well-rounded education [today’s employers want](http://chronicle.com/article/Employers-Want-Broadly/138453/). As the [American Academy of Arts and Science’s 2013 “The Heart of the Matter” report](http://www.humanitiescommission.org/%5Fpdf/hss%5Freport.pdf) observes, connecting these fields is necessary to solve the world’s biggest problems such as “the provision of clean air and water, food, health, energy, universal education, human rights, and the assurance of physical safety.” So, separating and prioritizing STEM from humanities ignores the fact that we live in a complex social and cultural world. And many different disciplines must combine to address this world’s needs and challenges. **Bringing the disciplines together** To address this gap, four years ago the faculty from materials engineering and liberal arts at the [University of Florida](http://www.humanities.ufl.edu/) began working with the [Materials Research Society](http://www.mrs.org/home/). We wanted to put together a new course on “materials.” Why did we choose materials? Because everything is made of them, every discipline studies them and they are tangible (quite literally) to the average freshman. After all, grade school students still learn about the [Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages](http://www.britannica.com/technology/hand-tool#toc39194). The [Industrial](http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution) and [Information revolutions](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28600802) revolved around new uses for steel, aluminum and silicon. The human past has been shaped by harnessing and consuming materials and energy. Materials will be important for our collective future as well. So, we thought, this is the future for which we should be preparing students. And thus our course, [The Impact of Materials on Society (IMOS)](http://www.mrs.org/impact-of-materials-on-society-subcommittee-goals/), was born. Taught by a team of nine faculty from engineering, humanities and social sciences, the course explores the close connection between the “stuff” in our lives and our experiences as social beings. Students discuss how materials benefit global trade and communication but also risk resource exploitation and political conflict. For example, we depend upon rare earths for our cellphones, iPads and wind farms, but accessing these rare earths from limited sources is not sustainable. So, some of the questions that the course raises are: what materials do we depend upon in our daily lives? Does this dependence have social consequences? What social relationships form around the production and use of these materials? And how do our current uses of materials affect our ability to discover new uses for them? Students are also asked to consider how our values shape our willingness to adopt new technologies. For example, Earl Tupper may have invented Tupperware, but it was [Brownie Wise and her home parties with other women](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/tupperware-wise/) who first made his polymer famous! Each week covers a different material (eg, clay, glass, gold, plastic), its scientific properties, demonstrations, and its past and present impacts. Working together in multidisciplinary groups, students then contemplate the development of future materials. These include flexible electronic materials that can be used to create [wearable sensors](http://www.insidescience.org/content/hi-tech-tattoo-your-workouts/1557) that can transmit important information, such as body hydration levels during athletic training. New [polymer (plastic) materials ](http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc%5Fsumm.jsp?cntn%5Fid=128637) made from renewable sources instead of petroleum may have fewer health risks and are more sustainable than today’s plastic cups and bottles. At the same time, they discuss the ethical and social considerations that might affect the successful production and adoption of these new materials in different contexts. **Gap in education** The course is different from other freshman-oriented courses. It is not a “history course for engineers.” And it is not an “engineering course for humanists.” It is an interdisciplinary course that uses multiple perspectives to understand materials innovation. A wide range of departments including engineering, anthropology, classics, history, English, sociology and philosophy participate in its teaching. Students refer to IMOS as a “bridge course” that provides the “connecting dots” between different classes. And the responses come from students across the different majors. For instance, one engineering major noted, “This class just further proves that you have to understand different aspects of how our world works and not just engineering to be a great engineer.” Meanwhile a history major observed, “This class gives me a leg up in my other history courses because it reminds me to think about the properties of materials and how they shape our lives.” These experiences point to a gaping hole in modern education: discipline-specific and general education courses provide important knowledge, but “bridging courses” are needed for students to capitalize upon that knowledge. To engineer useful technologies, we need to connect scientific study with the cultural competencies of the humanities and social sciences. **Challenges of 21st-century learning** The “Renaissance” ideal was to produce elite men whose broad training prepared them for any endeavor. Thankfully, 21st-century education is more inclusive. But it still requires intellectual and cognitive flexibility to harness large amounts of data. This doesn’t mean simply knowing everything, even though we live in the “Age of Google.” Today, students need the ability to make connections across disciplines. Celebrated innovators such as Einstein, Ada Lovelace and Steve Jobs credit the [intersection of disciplines](http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/walter-isaacson-lecture) for their inventive thinking. More boundary-crossing opportunities in higher education can break open the disciplinary silos. And that alone will unleash critical thinking and innovation. _Additional contributors to this article are University of Florida faculty Sean Adams, Marsha Bryant, Florin Curta, Mary Ann Eaverly, Bonnie Effros and Ken Sassaman, and Materials Research Society Outreach Coordinator Pamela Hupp._ _This_ [_article_](https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800) _originally appeared on_ [_The Conversation_](http://theconversation.com) ## Transcript If I knew that I could do what I do right now as a kid, I'd find it a little daunting because there was no linear way that I made it to where I am. I have a very sort of wiggly trajectory. [ LAUGH ] And some of it is luck, and some of it was talent. And some of it was Just being at the right place at the right time. There's no way that you could prescribe that. My name's Kate Beaton, I am the creator of Hark a Vagrant and also the new picture book The Princess and the Pony with Scholastic. The book is about a Little girl. She's a princess in a warrior kingdom and she wants to be an awesome warrior like everybody else, but she's just a little kid still. So she asks he parents for a great warrior horse for her birthday, something awesome. And they're her parents and they love her, and she's still their little girl. So they give her something not exactly A rad warrior horse, it's a little fat pony that farts too much. So it's not exactly what she asked for, and she has to make the best of it, and she does. A lot of fun ensuing. It's like this jelly bean shape thing. I feel like if you squeezed it, wind would come out. [ LAUGH ] It looks pretty squeezable. And I really wanted to make a book that made kids laugh. I thought if I was gonna start writing children's books, then that would be the main thing. I used to babysit when I was a teenager, and they always thought that farting was probably the funniest thing. That they've ever experienced. [ LAUGH ] So I thought it was a sure fire thing. It's a story about love, I think, in the end, and making the best of what you have. You might have big dreams and you're not there yet. You still have a lot going for you. Even if you're not the best. There's still a lot of good things in your life. There's a lot of gifts you were given. That will mean a lot to you, even if they're not the thing that you thought you wanted. Any kid who wants to become a comic artist should just keep drawing. The biggest thing that I did have on my side was wanting to meet people who were like me, I suppose. And becoming friends with people who did what I did. And then eventually you have this established peer group of respected artists as your friends. When you started, when you were just basically kids drawing for fun. So that's probably the best advice, to find people like you. And become friends with them. 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