L&S Curricular Connections

New fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

New fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Eleven UC Berkeley faculty members have been elected lifetime fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, professor of psychology, “for outstanding contributions to the science on the causes and consequences of prejudice and the identification of factors […]

Alison Gopnik: Making AI more childlike

Alison Gopnik: Making AI more childlike

The renowned expert on how babies learn about the world through curiosity and exploration is now collaborating with artificial intelligence researchers to make AI systems smarter by being more like children.

Saul Perlmutter: The Man Who Upended the Universe

Saul Perlmutter: The Man Who Upended the Universe

After making the astonishing discovery that what he and his fellow cosmologists thought they knew about the universe was wrong, Saul Perlmutter began a course at his university explaining why catching mistakes is at the heart of science. It’s also a lesson in life for the rest of us.

A partnership with Moleskine and U.C. Berkeley: The Future of Handwriting

A partnership with Moleskine and U.C. Berkeley: The Future of Handwriting

The evolution of handwriting has been a critical factor in preserving history and learning about the past. If it were not for the development of handwriting, some of the greatest thinkers of our time would not have been able to share their thoughts; thus, their stories never being told. …

The Future of Handwriting

The Future of Handwriting

In Fall of 2021, the 100 or so students in Greg Niemeyer’s “L&S 25: Creativity in Practice” course responded to a simple prompt with urgent creativity. The prompt: Write a note from the future to the present, by hand. …

Curious About Big Ideas?

Curious About Big Ideas?

One of my favorite parts about attending UC Berkeley is being challenged to learn and think in fun and unexpected ways. There are so many opportunities for this, including one I particularly enjoyed: Big Ideas Courses from the College of Letters & Science (L&S). …

Misinformation in and about science

Public engagement and understanding of science should be a priority for all scientists. This is not a matter of just teaching more astronomy or biology. Rather, it involves nurturing innate curiosity and teaching people to understand how science works, how to consider evidence when making conclusions, and how popular media distorts these conclusions. In our […]

What Makes Science Science?

What Makes Science Science?

In an undergraduate course that I’m teaching this semester, we introduce students to an unconventional definition of science. The course, Letters & Sciences 22: Sense and Sensibility and Science, comes from an interdisciplinary collaboration between a philosopher (John Campbell), a social psychologist (Robert MacCoun), a Nobel-prize-winning physicist (Saul Perlmutter), and a cognitive scientist (me). …