Creative Expression of Science through Poetry and Other Media can Enrich Medical and Science Education.

Creative expression of scientific observations and principles through poetry and other media can enrich medical and science education. This debunks the expectation that science and poetry, for example, are mutually exclusive (Figure ​(Figure1).1). Instead of coexisting as parallel lanes without interaction, poetry and science can cross over as one merges lanes. Kurtz and Loewenstein suggest that “spontaneous transfer of useful knowledge across domains is a powerful cognitive tool” (1), in this case, the domains of (i) science and medicine, and (ii) creative expression including poetry. Poetry hones critical skills in imagery, metaphor, analogy, analysis, observation, attentiveness, and clear communication. All of these are commonly useful in understanding, problem-solving, and decoding scientific and medical mysteries. Creative science expression facilitates this skills transfer, is not limited to poetry, and can include other media such as visual or performing arts. Active use of metaphors in this way helps learners understand science, and relies on their imagination to deconstruct and construct their perception of science. This serves as a vehicle for processing observations and assumptions, and can enrich education and facilitate learning. Jemison, a doctor, dancer, and astronaut embraces this kind of collaboration and teaches that science and arts are avatars or manifestations of the same human creativity (2). Figure 1 Creative expression of science enriches learning. Creative, subjective, and diverse expression of science by elementary and middle school (*and presumably high school, which has not yet been reported) students, as well as undergraduate, graduate, medical, ... Learning through Creative Expression of Science Involves Synergy The intermingling of creative imagery, metaphor, and analogy with the expression of science can lead to novel outcomes that are more than the sum of its parts (Figure ​(Figure1).1). To illustrate, writing scientific thoughts in the form of poems means that ideas cannot exist merely as a milieu in one’s mind. One has to communicate these true ideas in a way that others would understand. With such reasoning, one more deeply examines literature searches, broadening the scope of research findings and expanding the context for interpretation of results, more than would likely occur in the absence of creative expression. Thus, the process of writing good poetry that truly reflects good science leads to a fuller inquiry, interpretation, and appreciation of science. Several examples are provided as evidence for the impact of creative expression on science learners at various stages, from elementary school to graduate and health care education. Incorporating hands-on poetry and artistic expression of science from early stages in education may prime learners for further creative expression integration in advanced science and medical education. Undergraduate and graduate education pertinent to neurology and neuroscience One example involves undergraduate students in Massachusetts, USA and undergraduate and graduate students in New York, USA. Students were instructed to write haikus to learn and accurately convey complex neurological concepts (19). Numerous haikus were written about the symptoms, genetics, and underlying pathology of Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases, among others. Student comments on the exercises’ outcome indicated deep understanding of the neurodegenerative and addiction disorders. Profound learning resulted from internalizing the scientific information, while constructing coherent, impactful, and efficient haikus. Students concisely expressed neurobiological concepts, by emphasizing salient features. Learners were then required to provide written and oral deconstruction of their haikus to walk peers through their evidence-based thought process. The exercises encouraged higher-order thinking to forge a bridge between the arts and sciences and facilitated comprehension and propagation of complex ideas. Writing and sharing haikus helped with recall of the material and fleshing out missing parts. Educators noted that haiku-prose paired responses were the most scientifically accurate and well-written of all the students’ homework assignments. An unrelated author Chudler compiled “The Little Book of Neuroscience Haiku,” which includes explanations of topics for use in neurology and neuroscience education (24). Using such a model could potentially be a powerful impetus for undergraduate, graduate, medical, and younger learners of neurobiology. Walders supports this concept and suggests that poetry can braid curriculum areas by weaving concepts together (25). Embracing the diversity of creative science expression, Gurnon et al. suggest that visual arts can help hone creativity, objectivity, perseverance, spatial reasoning, and observational acuity (18). These authors reported on collaboration among faculty and undergraduate students in chemistry and sculpture to produce visual artwork inspired by protein-folding research (18). Their students performed literature searches to learn more about Villin, a calcium-dependent actin-binding protein. Results of the art-science collaboration were presented, using metaphors to help make the science of protein structure and folding more intuitive and meaningful to peer learners. Felton et al. support this form of creative expression and indicate that carefully producing artistic images can lead researchers to thoughtfully examine and clarify concepts behind a scientific topic (5). In this way, metaphoric analysis can help elucidate difficult topics in science. Taken together, these examples are evidence that creative science expression can enrich undergraduate and graduate education relevant to neurology and neuroscience.