Purpose of the Book

This book was written by students in STS 1010: Survey of Science Technology and Society at Clemson University, South Carolina, in Fall 2021, under the instruction of Dr. Mary Kate Fidler. It is an outcome of a collaboration between Dr. Fidler’s course and Clemson Libraries’ open pedagogy program. Open pedagogy is an innovative approach to teaching which combines a constructivist approach with internet publishing technology, wherein students write both individually and in teams under the guidance of an instructor and showcase their work as a class web publication. In creating a work for the public, the class works together to craft the vision and goals of the work and students take ownership of their individual chapter topics. In the process, students learn skills that transfer to real life, including professional writing for a public audience, peer review, and copyright.

Open Pedagogy projects result in work that has lasting value beyond traditional written course assignments, which are shared only with the instructor. These projects are available to the public, can be continuously edited by students, read by future courses, and can be used by students as evidence of their professional writing skills and creativity.

Book Structure

This book is organized into 5 parts, each on a larger topic that students chose to explore and write research papers on. Each student paper is related to the larger topic of the class: the impacts of technological innovations on human society. Students highlight the learning objectives for their paper, provide review questions to test the reader’s knowledge as well as questions to invite the reader to think more deeply about the topic.