Synthesis is a student magazine on science and technology-related topics for a general audience produced as part of the Wesleyan Science/Writing Project. It showcases student writing by both science and non-science majors and includes student work submitted in general education courses offered through the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics (NSM).

We gratefully acknowledge support for Synthesis from:

The National Science Foundation

 

The New England Consortium for Undergraduate Science Education (NECUSE)

 

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute

 

Synthesis began in the 1980s, under the direction of Prof. Jason Wolfe, as a publication to update the Wesleyan community about undergraduate research and activities in the sciences, in conjunction with Prof. Wolfe's course, Intellectual Foundations of Biology.

An edition ofSynthesis featuring both fictional and expository writing was published in 1989-90 as part of the general education course, Intellectual and Cultural Perspectives on Science, developed by Professor David Beveridge. A sense of this course may be gained from an excerpt from Prof. Beveridge's introduction to the first Synthesis edition:

"The purpose of Intellectual and Cultural Perspectives on Science as a general education course at Wesleyan is to provide a forum for the creative exploration of diverse perspectives on science. The comparison and contrast of the practice of science with creative work in other areas, as well as the parallels and develoing conections between science and the humanities and arts are discussed. In a larger sense, the course provides an experience of what the process of an intellectual life is like, whatever the endeavor: readings, ideas, art, experience, and discussion transformed into individual creative products, and somehow fed back into the social and intellectual process of the group."

Although the '89-'90 edition of Synthesis was produced as a traditional magazine, an on-line adaptation is now available as a "Past Issue."

Synthesis went on-line in Spring 1997, when students in a brand-new general education course, "Writing About Science," (Joy McConnell, Instructor) produced four "Special Issues" as group projects.

NSM Faculty & Friends Who Have Assisted Us

Synthesis Today:

Two sections of Writing About Science were presented in Spring 2000 (Section 1 Intructors Sandy Becker & Tim Klassen, Section 2 Intructor: Joy McConnell). Each section produced it's own issue of Synthesis. Section 1 wrote profiles of Wesleyan Science faculty while Section 2 wrote about technology.