During the first week of class, a computer science instructor asserted to his students that flowery language was prohibited. Why? –Because his class was scientific, not artsy. While this instructor may have been joking, his assertion recalls into question a primitive but evergreen topic of debate: What is science? What is art? Is there a fine line between the two?
As children, we view life in dichotomies—right versus wrong, to name one. But as we discover and participate in diverse communities, often our scopes of vision widen, inviting space for alternate possibilities and interpretations—not just “black-or-white” thinking.
The University of Maryland is a great model of a diverse intellectual community. As President Wallace Loh proclaims on The Office of the President’s home page, “We prepare our students to be enlightened, well-rounded citizens who enjoy life, art, sports, and other extracurricular activities.” Continuing with Loh’s own words, “These students are the pride of our university.”
Returning to my opening anecdote, I began to wonder if faculty—perhaps unintentionally—may be encouraging “black-and-white” thinking, thereby contradicting a crucial mission of the university as proudly articulated by President Loh. This was the seed for a project* that I am excited to share with collegiettes everywhere.
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Part I.
To get things cooking, I asked a subset of students on campus to finish the phrase “Cooking is…” with one of the following choices:
(a) An art.
(b) A science.
(c) Both.
(d) Other.
The results, shown in the pie chart below, came out of the oven to be:
Part II.
Next, I asked students to give me brief (i.e., no more than two sentences) definitions of art and of science, separately. Because of the open-ended nature of these questions, and because I did not want to taint the students’ intellectual contributions, I created a short montage of some of the most compelling responses. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpLyENUfajE&feature=youtu.be
When you watch, take note of how the responses may reflect the facets or concentrations within subjects that the student has likely studied. They also, of course, reflect personal experience.
Part III.
Finally, I asked 15 students to consider the fields of theater, psychology, engineering, philosophy, literature, photography, music, computer science, linguistics, biology, and mathematics. Then, I asked them to classify each field into one of the three given categories:
1. Art
2. Science
3. Both
The results are recorded in the table below.
While the table is rather straightforward, it is interesting to note not just the very “grey” thinking illustrated by these respondents, but also the emergence of a new category altogether: “Neither.” In one case, someone felt that engineering and computer science fell under a different realm, which was consistent with that student’s definitions of art and science.
What that student demonstrated—and indeed, what all respondents demonstrated to some degree—is critical thought: thinking outside the box, above and beyond, in the grey fluid. That is what the University of Maryland strives to promote and stimulate; that is what makes it so greyt.
* So, was this an art or science project? That’s for you to decide!
~ Thank you to all of the students who contributed!!!