Well, here is the sciency art we've been waiting for (after a fashion): Bard college, a small, artsy school, is getting serious about teaching its students science, according to this New York Times article. The college has instituted a required Bard president Leon Botstein states:
“The most terrifying problem in American university education is the profound lack of scientific literacy for the people we give diplomas to who are not scientists or engineers,” he said. “The hidden Achilles’ heel is that while we’ve found ways to educate scientists in the humanities, the reverse has never really happened. Everybody knows this, but nobody wants to do anything about it.”Bard is instilling science literacy in its students by requiring them to take an intensive, two-and-a-half-week long session in which they get to do hands-on labwork under the tutelage of scientists.
This is actually a clever idea. Bard doesn't have many scientists on its faculty, so they're borrowing scientists from other universities to teach during the winter session. Students get exposure to people they wouldn't otherwise have a chance to meet.
This, on the other hand...
To promote learning for learning’s sake, students will receive neither course credits nor grades. [...] While there is no final grade, there is a final project, and Ms. Batkin and six classmates came up with an idea that is pure Bard: a dance performance that illustrates how an influenza vaccine works. Students assumed the roles of the antigen, B cell, T cell and antibodies.
