How society ought to engage with nature, science and technology

The way we engage with the natural world informs our scientific understandings and our worldviews.

This is the premise of Advaith Siddharthan, Professor of Computer Science and Society’s inaugural lecture, in which he will discuss the impacts of modern culture's disassociation with nature and the potential for citizen science methodologies to redress these. He will go on to advocate for science education to adopt more outdoor field studies to engage students with practical science and he will provide examples of how digital technologies could paradoxically help reconnect people with nature.

Abstract

Professor Siddharthan will argue that as we address the global sustainability challenges of our time, binary Western ontologies that frame ‘nature’ as something separated from the human realm of ‘culture’ need confronting. He will ask if ‘citizen science’ approaches can meaningfully reconnect people with the natural world just by enabling their participation in scientific explorations?

From recent collaborative research in primary and secondary schools, Professor Siddharthan will give examples of how citizen science methods take science learning out of the classroom and back into nature, and how digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence and haptics, add value when embedded within a programme of outdoor learning. Such naturalistic learning through touch and other sensory experiences helps develop affective connections between science and its personal and societal relevance.

Finally, he will explore citizen science methods as a process for epistemic justice, i.e. giving the public a voice in the construction of knowledge and agency to use that knowledge for societal benefit. He will address this in the context of the Open University’s mission of being “open to people, places, methods and ideas”.

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