Process Pop-Up: A Process-Relational Approach to Teaching Science

In this process pop-up, Christie Byers will explore what it might mean to teach science as if the world were alive. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, she shares an approach to elementary science education that shifts away from viewing nature as inert and mechanical, and toward experiencing it as relational and participatory, a community of diverse subjects infused with value. Rather than teaching Whitehead’s ideas explicitly, Byers designs her course as an embodied enactment of them, using an “as if” approach, “as if” we are indeed living in a Whiteheadian cosmos, inviting preservice teachers to encounter science through wonder, aesthetic experience, and direct engagement with the more-than-human world.

Participants will be invited into a brief experiential activity that mirrors the pedagogical approach of the course, followed by an exploration of key design principles including the rhythm of learning (romance, precision, generalization), experience as primary, and the role of feeling and imagination in scientific understanding. Byers will also share examples of course structures and assignments, including wonder journaling and field-based reflection, that aim to cultivate a more vital, participatory relationship with science. This session offers both a conceptual and practical invitation to reimagine science education as a living, creative, and life-affirming practice.