Science on Tap: How performing arts can enhance understanding of the environment

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jamë McCray, a Delaware Sea Grant will speak at the next installment of Science on Tap, where she will use performing arts to analyze and discuss today’s environmental issues.

The talk, titled “Dancing Climate Change and Other Environmental Topics,” will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday (March 26) at Lafayette Brewing Company, 622 Main St., Lafayette. The talk is free and open to anyone 21 and older.

While reading a report on climate change is one thing, watching a dance performance on the same topic will provide an entirely different experience. McCray’s talk will discuss how arts integration can be used to create experiences that facilitate learning, engagement and action. She will use examples of artistic performances on environmental issues to illustrate how the arts can be used to enhance understanding of scientific topics. McCray also will lead participants in creating their own environmental dances.

McCray earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and her master’s degree from the University of Miami. She has been an environmental social scientist at the Delaware Sea Grant since 2017.

This month’s installment of Science on Tap is being held in conjunction with the Ecological Sciences and Engineering Symposium, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and Illinois/Indiana Sea Grant.

Science on Tap, led by graduate students Elizabeth Phillips, Matthew Pharris, Emma Lendy and Aswathy Chandran, provides Purdue faculty and collaborating researchers the opportunity to share research activities in an informal setting with presentations designed to appeal to a more general audience. 

Writer: Jaclyn Lawmaster, jlawmast@purdue.edu

Source: Emma Lendy, organizer of Science On Tap Lafayette, elendy@purdue.edu