PIVOTS

PIVOTS (Peer Interdisciplinary Volunteer Outreach with Theatre and Science) is a new initiative, conceived by a team of faculty at Villanova University (scientists, artists, engineers, educators) in collaboration with civic, corporate, and non-profit organizations.

We are artists, scientists and engineers devoted to developing a program of multidisciplinary, magic-themed science exploration where faculty will mentor high-school students who in turn will prepare and deliver lessons, using a magic theme, for elementary and middle-school students.

Our focus is to determine the conditions (mentoring, support), materials, and background that will equip children to be directly involved in the research and artistic design necessary for creating and performing in a “magic school” for younger children and for conveying the excitement of self-directed learning in the sciences.

The ultimate objective is to nurture the cognitive capacities which are essential to the successful pursuit of careers in science: critical judgment, intellectual curiosity, creativity, determination, and discipline.

By linking the arts with science and mathematics, we seek to bridge the two cultures and spark the interest of student populations who have been difficult to motivate by traditional methods.

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