Designing and implementing case studies as a model of integrating humanities and diverse perspectives into undergraduate STEM courses

An increasing number of research studies indicate that student learning outcomes improve when humanistic perspectives are integrated into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Practical guidance is currently limited on how to effectively integrate science and humanities; therefore, we developed an integration model and process applicable to a STEM Futures framework, which integrates three knowledge domains, foundational, humanistic, and meta knowledge, into STEM coursework. Here, we describe the rationale for developing integrated coursework, our chosen method of integration (case studies), the goal of the case studies, and the process of developing these integrated case studies. A team of instructors from three universities and one historian of science developed, tested, refined, and taught case studies in science courses at Colorado State University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and University of Texas at El Paso. Importantly, case studies were focused on the reincorporation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) into histories of science. The historian of science provided expert advice on examples for integration and how to approach difficult conversations around BIPOC in agriculture. Focusing on the collaboration between one STEM instructor and the science historian, we describe here the collaborative process of STEM and humanities faculty members designing case studies, the importance of collaboration between the instructors, and the key components of the content and questions written to meet the goals of the course.