"I'm going to get those students to understand some things about how science operates and what science is as a human endeavour," he says. "I'm going to get them to know in their bones that any creative process starts from a profound appreciation of our ignorance and a willingness to articulate what that is."
The zoology professor launches a lunch-time seminar series called Science First! on Sept. 19. The series will have professors talking informally about their research, why they became scientists and what science means to them.
Gass's Thursday chat, titled Where's the Science in Science Education, starts at 1 p.m. and is the first of six noon-hour lectures planned for the Fall term in Lecture Hall 2 of the Instructional Resources Centre.
Associate Dean of Science Julyet Benbasat says the series is part of a concerted effort in the faculty to get students, particularly those in first year, to rethink what it is about science that excites them most. Benbasat believes the series will stimulate students' appreciation for the breadth of science and give them more of an awareness of the many options available at UBC, whether their interests lie in a research career or in professional or applied fields.
While attendance at the Science First! seminars is not compulsory, Benbasat hopes students will want to invest some of their own time learning, asking questions and broadening their vision of science.
Says Benbasat: "We're all putting more emphasis on enhancing the life skills of students and getting them to learn science for science's sake rather than memorizing specific details which will, in many cases, be outdated in a few years."
For the past 15 months, a 28-member committee of science professors, students and alumni have been working on a new vision for the faculty. Their work was released in a comprehensive Strategic Planning Report, a large part of which focuses on initiatives to enhance student learning and their ability to link knowledge and ideas from various disciplines to solve a problem.
The report's introduction states: "the jobs that are being created depend increasingly on skills such as communication and integration of ideas - skills that have not been the focus of teaching in the Faculty of Science in the past."
The faculty is refocusing its teaching efforts on many fronts.
Benbasat sees the lunch-time seminar series as a precursor to many of the initiatives listed in the report. She also points to the introduction of a Co-ordinated Science Option for 100 first-year students as another faculty development this term aimed at fostering student creativity and critical thinking.
Modelled after the Science One program, the pilot project will have one section of students going through their core science classes - biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics - together. Professors teaching this section will work as a team to highlight the interplay between the different disciplines.
"The idea is that by sticking together, the students will live and breath science inside and outside the classroom," says Benbasat.
Gass, a founder and teacher in the three-year-old Science One program, says introducing the integrated concept into the mainstream science curriculum can't help but produce positive results.
"Students come boiling out of Science One and are causing a ruckus in their other classes because they hear something and their hand goes up," says Gass. "Once students get their curiosity tweaked and start making connections, they take off like a rocket."
The schedule for Science First! seminars is as follows: Paul LeBlond, Oct. 3; Prof. Lorne Whitehead, Oct. 17; Prof. Marie Klawe, Oct. 31; Asst. Prof. Jaymie Matthews, Nov. 14; and Assoc. Prof. Rosemary Knight, Nov. 28.