Physicists nearly universally believe that a little more physics thinking would do a lot of good in the world. Through outreach and general education courses, we make an effort to show non-scientists the value of our approach to problems. Like many colleges and universities, Wesleyan University has a decades-long tradition of offering courses geared toward nonmajors. A standard approach1,2 aims to give students an appreciation for the power and beauty of physical law, typically by assigning problem sets to help them understand physics principles. This paper describes another approach, which brings physics awareness to students through writing about sustainability for a public audience.
The course format is an adaptation of the Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing, pioneered by David Lindauer at Wellesley College as a capstone course for economics majors3–5 and brought to campuses across the United States through efforts supported by the Calderwood Charitable Foundation. The Calderwood...