ImprovPHYSation workshops, led by Nancy Watt and Carolyn Sealfon, combine best practices in improv and physics education to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning and teaching.
Improv is the art form of spontaneous play, creativity and collaboration. Using the fundamental rule of “Yes, and”, the inherently positive rule guides players to agree with the reality that has been created on stage and then add their own contribution to the scene or idea.
Read more in our article on improv-PHYS-ation for the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers newsletter.
Improv allows for an intuitive knowledge and spontaneity that too rarely is acknowledged in the world of STEM. Playful thought, imagination, wonder and curiosity, while fundamental to the rigors of scientific inquiry, often get shrouded in a climate and culture of competition and poor communication. We aim to create environments that allow all curious humans to thrive.
Albert Einstein spoke about the importance of combinatory play. This is the process of combining resources, information and inspiration across different disciplines to create original ideas. As Einstein put it, “Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.”
Combining improv with the world of STEM has opened up ideas, innovation and powerful teams.
-Nancy Watt
People learn by doing and playing. I’ve seen this demonstrated over and over, as a physics professor at large public universities, as past Associate Director of Science Education at Princeton University, in various workshops from professional development to performing and martial arts, and through an abundance of peer-reviewed research. If we want to foster scientific creativity, effective collaboration, and comfort with exploring the unknown, improv offers the most powerful toolbox I know.
-Carolyn Sealfon
Resources & Links
Improv-PHYS-ation: Cultivating Physics Learning Communities
Meta-analysis on active learning in STEM
Resource pages from past workshops:
Improv for Physics at the AAPT winter meeting
Harnessing the Power of Play to Probe Electricity
All Hands on Tech: Forging Connections Using Personal Response Systems (PRS)
At Johns Hopkins, improv class teaches science-minded students to think on their feet
Engineers have lots of experience with lines, from the structural lines of buildings to the lines of code in software. But a new class at Johns Hopkins University is teaching them about other lines—the kind that might be tossed their way in an improvisational comedy scene.