Twenty-two Stanford freshmen spent the last school year living, studying and socializing immersed in scientific inquiry. In its inaugural year, the residential education program SIMILE: Science in the Making Integrated Learning Environment drew interest from and selected a diverse group representative of the student body, many of whom don't intend to become physicians or scientists or even plan to major in related fields. SIMILE students take pre-major requisites including writing, rhetoric and breadth requirements focused on the historical, cultural and social contexts of science. They also complete hands-on projects, attend field trips and regularly interact with faculty and guest lecturers in the program. Housed in the all-freshman Burbank House with ITALIC (Immersion in the Arts: Living in Culture), SIMILE students attend lectures and discussion sections in-house and have some shared activities with the new arts-focused residential academic program there.
A recent Stanford Report piece notes:
In the fall, Paula Findlen, [PhD,] a professor of Italian history and director of SIMILE, and Reviel Netz, a professor of classics, team-taught Inventing Science, Technology and Medicine. The class explored how those scientific fields emerged from the human desire to understand nature – empirically, mathematically and philosophically – and to control the environment.
Findlen said the program offered a "big picture view" of how human interactions have changed over the centuries, using history as the lens to understand the invention of science, technology and medicine.
"Fundamentally, SIMILE is a program about the history of knowledge," she said.
Previously: Exploring global health through historical literature, Thoughts on the arts and humanities in shaping a medical career and Intersection of arts and medicine a benefit to both, report finds
Photo by Jeremy Moffett
