the interdisciplinary work of a group of people committed both to better defining and to accomplishing these tasks.As a change agent, SENCER is concerned with institutional and curricular reform, particularly in regards to designing new science courses and rethinking older ones in ways that make the connections between science, people, and society more transparent. Through such connections, these courses invite students (as well as their instructors) to engage in the complex social issues that face us today locally, regionally, and globally. Ultimately, as Leshner pointed out, science is about people and life. So is the SENCER project.We first describe how the SENCER approach contributes to the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Next we offer examples of chemistry courses that have been constructed on the SENCER model. And finally, we acknowledge the challenges that underlie the project, including designing the SENCER course, setting and assessing its goals, and teaching for civic engagement.
The SENCER ProjectIn 2005, SENCER entered its fifth year as a national dissemination project. Originally affiliated with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, SENCER now has its home in the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. One of the authors of this paper (KKO) is the co-founder of the Center, and a cadre of SENCER senior associates (including the other authors of this paper) serves as the faculty for the SENCER Summer Institutes for curricular development. Over 300 participants attended the 2005 Institute, representing 106 institutions, 30 states, and three continents. In addition, the senior associates contribute background papers and descriptions of model courses, as do the SENCER participants themselves. The details, as well as a quarterly newsletter, can be found on the SENCER Web site (2). Symposia featuring SENCER courses have been organized at recent national meetings (3)(4)(5).At the heart of the SENCER project lie its undergraduate courses for nonscience majors, including courses currently being taught and courses under development by teams at over 150 colleges and universities. These courses explicitly teach through complex, current, and contested real-world issues to basic scientific principles, thus engaging the learners in the complexities of both. In fact, the previous sentence is foremost among the ideals (List 1) to which the SENCER courses