The Grosseteste Science project is developing a second strand of investigation, alongside the medieval and modern scientific interpretations of particular works. The second strand to the project takes the inter-disciplinary methodology and material generated on Grosseteste a stage further and involves educationalists and the teaching sector. The aim is to present Grosseteste and his world to teachers, science learning specialists, and, eventually, school pupils. The hope for this engagement is to create new opportunities for active reflection on how science should be learnt, and new locations for academic research to be tested. Engaging teachers and school pupils with this subject will throw the notions of science, scientific progress and the nature of knowledge into sharper and longer relief. The modern perception of a conflictual-only model for the relationship between science and religion, if not science and the humanities, can therefore challenged in the education sector, as well as in the academic.
The new team members to the project, Vanessa Kind, Per Kind and Dorothy Warren will be facilitating this second strand, in tandem with the existing teams. The School of Education, Durham University and the Centre for Science Learning North East will provide the forum for meetings and creative interaction between the medieval/science interpretative strand and the education sector. Peter Claus from Pembroke College will also be joining us, with his expertise on outreach and connection between schools and universities.
By making an educative element central to the project, we hope to push further our exploration of fundamental questions and reflections: the human dimension to science and the observation of the world around us, and the power of the past to inspire contemporary narratives of knowledge. Grosseteste was an inspiring teacher, we hope he can be again.