Science on Tap

Brewery as classroom? This takes "education virtually anywhere" to a new level. As I was driving home the other day, I heard this little radio spot on KUOW about scientists holding lectures at local pubs and coffee shops such as T.S. McHugh's Pub
in Lower Queen Anne and Ravenna Third Place Books in Seattle.

What a great example of the ubiquitous nature of knowledge and life-long learning! Anybody interested in science can attend these informal gatherings and learn in a comfortable, social setting. Imagine if we could inspire students in our colleges to learn and share knowledge in this way. I can envision courses that are structured with combinations of online assessment and participation in these types of informal discussion groups at coffee houses, led by experts in their fields. Imagine if teachers were knowledge facilitators and mentors for students as they learn from all of these different resources. A college education would look a lot different than it does now.

Listen to the KUOW broadcast at http://kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=14087 (it's about 44 minutes into the show). More information about Science on Tap, including links to articles about the program and a schedule of upcoming topics can be found at http://www.scienceontap.org.

Cheers! :)