Writing Critically in STEAM

Daniel Ness is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at St. John’s University. He has authored numerous articles on cognitive development, play, and curriculum. Ness is the author of Block Parties: Identifying Emergent STEAM Thinking through Play and co-editor of Alternatives to Privatizing Public Education and Curriculum.

• Foreword – Acknowledgments – Introduction – What Does it Mean to Write Critically in STEAM? – Tools for Writing Critically in STEAM – From Brainstorming to Writing Critically in STEAM – Writing Critically in the Natural Sciences – Writing Critically in Technology – Writing Critically in Engineering, Art, and Architecture – Writing Critically in Mathematics – Questioning Norms in Critical STEAM Writing – Glossary of Technical Terms in Writing and STEAM – Appendix A – Appendix B – Appendix C – Appendix D – References – Index.

In Writing Critically in STEAM, Ness is again concise yet expansive. In many ways, considering his career, he was destined to write this book. On one level this book is about how to write in the different STEAM disciplines. We know intuitively that we write differently in math, for example, than in technology, but we don’t always know what the large differences are—not to mention the subtle gray zones between the genres. As Ness teases out these differences, he explores the multiple underlying dynamics of writing that take place before, during and even after the writing process within STEAM. This focus includes the writer’s stance in relation to thinking, working, and communicating within the different disciplines. It includes subtle differences between the genres within the disciplines, such as those between scientific writing and science writing. And it includes the formation of representation within the disciplines.Richard D. SawyerProfessor, Washington State University, Vancouver