S C I E N C E . P R O G R A M
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S C I E N C E . P R O G R A M |
The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in January, 1996. Although some of the courses, students, and faculty members referenced in the story may have changed in the meantime, it still provides a full and accurate picture of the Interdisciplinary Science Program. For the most current course information and faculty listing, we encourage you to visit the program's homepage.
Interdisciplinary Science Program
An honors program puts first-year students on the fast track to doing real science.
This semester, first-year student Jennifer Milham-Becker '97 will do research on an antioxidant chemical found in chili peppers. She doesn't quite know what she'll find, and that, she says, is the whole point: her project is not a "cookbook" experiment in which the outcome is either predictable or already known. It's true lab research, the kind professional scientists do every day. Milham-Becker is one of 27 first-year students enrolled in Trinity's Interdisciplinary Science Program. The opportunity to perform exciting research is just one of the benefits for students enrolled in the ISP.
The idea for the ISP originated in 1987 with Professor of Chemistry David Henderson, who conceived an honors program for science students based on the College's successful Guided Studies in European Civilization program, which was introduced in the late-1970s. "My original goal was to enrich the experience of science majors," says Henderson. "The sciences are increasingly being viewed as interrelated."
The ISP explores the natural ties among biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, neuroscience, engineering, and computer science in a meaningful way and often relates to cutting-edge, relevant science that goes on in the real world. It is an honors program for first-year students and sophomores, and as such it helps to attract high-quality science students to the College.
In a world where top-notch science students enjoy many good choices, the ISP is evidence of the advantages of studying science at a small liberal arts college and in particular of Trinity's commitment to the sciences. For Tim Lishnak '97, now a junior, the program played a part in his decision to matriculate at Trinity. He says, "It gave Trinity a bit of an edge."
The program invites certain students who have been accepted to Trinity and who have a strong science background to enroll in a specially designed three-semester curriculum that begins with a team-taught interdisciplinary science seminar in the fall of the first year. The structure for this seminar has evolved over the years to one in which one faculty member is the main teacher or course coordinator, with other professors visiting to offer modules on diverse topics, said Paula Russo, associate professor of mathematics and director of both the ISP and the new Trinity College Science Alliance, which coordinates and promotes the College's programs in the sciences.
Milham-Becker noted that last fall's seminar focused on how the mathematical concept of fractals might affect the approaches that biologists and chemists take toward their work. Since Milham-Becker's primary interest is biology, she enjoyed "looking at things from many different points of view."
Lishnak, a biology major, recalls that his ISP freshman seminar introduced him to computer science. He learned that computer and mathematical simulations could be applied to various experiments in all of the scientific disciplines.
From the Theoretical to the Applied. 
The second term for ISP students involves hands-on laboratory work in a research apprenticeship. This kind of exposure is important, Henderson said, because "it gives them a concept of what scientists really do." Early on, a student can discover whether a career in the sciences is what he or she wishes to pursue.
Finally, in the sophomore year ISP students take a one-semester seminar devoted to current public policy issues relating to discoveries in science and technology. It is a course that gives students a sense of the practice of science in the world and its role in society. The focus of discussion may include such practical issues as risk analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and ethics.
Lishnak's class, for example, studied several aspects of energy-including the sources, benefits, limitations, and problems presented by various forms of energy. "It opened my eyes to the energy crisis," he says. Based on his experiences in the seminar, he is convinced of the need for lawmakers and public policy experts to focus now on exploring future energy sources.
Professor Russo notes that the public policy seminar provides "a different take on science and makes particular sense in the liberal arts setting."
A Community of Scientists.
Initiating contact with a professor is sometimes an intimidating prospect for first-year students. But the ISP provides a forum in which science students can get to know personally a number of science professors from different disciplines in a supportive environment. For Tim Lishnak, the opportunity to work one-on-one with a professor as a first-year student was one of the best benefits of the program.
Margaret Flynn-Taylor '91 was one of the first students to complete the program and is now studying cell biology in a Harvard program; she expects to complete her doctoral degree this year. Flynn-Taylor said the ISP did more than expose students to ideas and information that was not available through regular courses. "It connected all of us who were interested in the sciences and made us into a community," she said. "We could rely on each other for support."
The ISP provides both a peer group and a social network, and the students become a closely knit group. They live in the same residence hall during the freshman year and often continue to be friends and roommates in the years after the program is completed.
Students and faculty alike can attest to the fact that the benefits go further than the three semesters in which they work together in the ISP. Russo notes that many students go on to do graduate work in the sciences or attend medical school. In their junior and senior years at Trinity, ISP students are often leaders and supervisors of other students performing advanced research. And, said Russo, "Very often ISP students are the scholars and prizewinners on Honors Day."
- Leslie Virostek