How We Work

How do we learn to better sustain life and human society on our planet? Climate change, pandemics and other global disruptions require that people conserve what we value, anticipate change and innovate solutions to emerging challenges. To do this, we need to keep learning, develop the skills to stay strong and act quickly when we’re met with challenging situations.

How do we learn to live healthy, fulfilling lives? Human development is a lifelong journey that starts when we’re babies and continues throughout our lifespan. Flourishing at each stage of our lives requires learning how to communicate, build relationships and care for all aspects of our health.

How do we learn to take care of each other? Prejudice, bigotry and inequities corrode society and hold us back from our true potential. Making society more fair and just requires us to learn about people's unique lives and histories, how to embrace and build on the differences, and how to use care and empathy to improve institutions.

How do we learn to create and use technologies that improve our society? Technology is changing fast and it can be hard to keep up. To live thoughtfully in this technologically saturated world, people of all ages need to learn if and how they might apply these technologies in their lives, with opportunities to create, adapt and govern the way these technologies are used.

Noemi Waight, associate professor of learning and instruction in the Graduate School of Education, and her team established STEMcyclists—a science and engineering summer cycling program where students of color learn the science, engineering principles and biomechanics of bikes and bike riding.

Noemi Waight, associate professor of learning and instruction in the Graduate School of Education, and her team established STEMcyclists—a science and engineering summer cycling program where students of color learn the science, engineering principles and biomechanics of bikes and bike riding.