Atoms in Art & Culture

A Discovery Core Experience
May be taken as either BCORE 110 (Natural Sciences), or BCORE 104 (Arts & Humanities). Also fulfills the Community Engaged Learning (E) designation.
About This Course
Our inventions are all around us. And we have reinvented ourselves to accommodate them. 足彩app哪个是正规的 clock on our phones dictates the way we spend our time with people. 足彩app哪个是正规的 lights in our cities influence the way we sleep and how fireflies mate. 足彩app哪个是正规的 colors in advertisements guide the way we think about products and people. In this class, we will explore the atoms–the materials–that make up our world and how their properties have affected our culture, art, and history. You will learn how to re-frame scientific concepts into the context of stories. We will communicate our research through comics in which we will draw connections between atoms and art; between materials and culture; between matter and what matters.
Why Should I Take This Course?
We bake cakes, we make paint, we play with light, we create art, we tell stories. This class lets you explore the objects around us and connects those objects with their effects on our psychology, ecology, history, and art. 足彩app哪个是正规的 class lets you be creative and curious.
Selected Texts & Films
Alchemy of Us by Ainessa Ramirez
Selected Projects & Activities
We’ll get creative — doing things like explore the interaction of gatorade with light and developing a Comic Book describing the interaction between science and society.
Why Is This a Community-Engaged Learning (E) Course?
This course carries a Community-Engaged Learning & Research (CELR) designation because students collaborate directly with a community partner to create work that has real public impact. In our class, that partner is the King County Library System’s Bothell branch, whose mission to make knowledge accessible aligns closely with our course’s goal of connecting scientific ideas with everyday life. Through this partnership, students transform complex scientific concepts into creative, public?facing displays and activity?stations that help library patrons explore the cultural and material stories behind scientific innovation. 足彩app哪个是正规的 Bothell Library provides a real audience and authentic context for students’ work, while students contribute engaging educational materials that support the library’s community programming. This reciprocal collaboration embodies the core of CELR: students learn by doing meaningful work with and for the community, practicing communication, creativity, and interdisciplinary thinking while contributing to a shared public resource. In this course, your learning doesn’t stay in the classroom — it becomes part of the broader community’s learning as well.
Professor Gavin Doyle (He/Him/His)
School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Professor Doyle
“We draw connections between matter and what matters.” — Professor Doyle
- JD, Law, Loyola Law School-Los Angeles
- MFA, 足彩app哪个是正规的atre Performance, University of Louisville
- Certificate in African-American 足彩app哪个是正规的atre, 足彩app哪个是正规的atre Performance, University of Louisville
- BA, Biology, Roanoke College
- BA, 足彩app哪个是正规的atre, Roanoke College
Contact
- Email: gdoyle@uw.edu
Dr. Charity Lovitt (She/Her/Hers)
School of Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics

About Professor Lovitt
- Ph.D, Chemistry, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- BS Chemistry, Kentucky Wesleyan College
Contact
- Email: lovittc@uw.edu