Science, Policy and Citizenship Program

Program Areas – Education and Engagement

Program Goals:

This program provides an important opportunity for high school age students to learn and engage in emerging science and engineering issues from the citizen’s perspective – to consider the social and ethical issues that may accompany transformative technologies like climate geoengineering and synthetic biology. It has three primary goals:

1. Educational: Teach students about the transformative impact of science and engineering at a grand scale and the role experts, citizens and lawmakers play in resolving them.
2. Research: Test the efficacy of methods, technology and processes of using participatory technology assessment as a decision-making tool in science and technology policy.
3. Outreach: Demonstrate that the public can be effectively engaged – even at a young age – to formulate and express informed ideas that contribute to democratic approaches in dealing with technology and society.

Program Coordinators:

• Mahmud Farooque, Associate Director, CSPO, DC Office
• Ira Bennett, Assistant Research Professor, CNS-ASU and CSPO
• Travis Doom, Program Specialist, CSPO

Projects:

• Tinkering with the Temperature of Planet Earth: A citizens’ deliberation on climate geoengineering
• Designer Organisms: The promise and perils of synthetic biology
• National Biodiversity Strategy: A Citizens’ Assessment
• Pandora’s Promise: Nuclear Power in Bangladesh

Program Sequence:

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Meet the Project Team

Principal Investigators

• 

  Mahmud Farooque

  Associate Director, CSPO

• 

  Ira Bennett

  Co-director of CENTSS, Clinical Associate Professor