Dr. Tom Solomon, Presidential Professor of Physics, is currently teaching UNIV 232, Science Technology and Society, a Community-Engaged Learning course that explores the effects science and those that study it have on society. What makes this course so special is that it is an Inside-Out course, which means that the course is taught in a correctional facility. Solomon travels to the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Coal Township with 12 Bucknell students, here referred to as outside students, to teach them and 12 incarcerated students, referred to as inside students. As of this semester, the inside students will receive course credit for their participation, which they can put towards a degree-granting program upon re-entry.
Dr. Coralyn Davis, a Professor of Women’s & Gender studies and the current Chair of Faculty, has taught Inside-Out courses in the past and has been pushing for Bucknell to expand its prison education efforts. When Professor Davis began to gauge faculty interest, Solomon was fascinated by the idea and got in contact with her. After attending an Inside-Out training session, Solomon began to prepare his own course. Historically, STEM has been under-represented in Inside-Out courses, so Solomon’s addition was exciting for those already involved in prison education.
The class provides both the inside and outside students with a unique learning environment. Solomon compared student engagement in class to regular classes here at Bucknell. He explained that in the average class here at Bucknell, “There’ll be like, three or four students that are just really intuitive, really engaged, enjoying the material and enjoying the class. And that just makes everything worthwhile for me. And I told my colleagues, I say, imagine now, a class with 24 students where, all of them are like that. And that’s basically what you have with the Inside Out class.”
Solomon described the inside students as “so motivated, so enthusiastic, and so engaged in the material.” Solomon has been asking the students to write reflections, also asking for permission to share these with others, and these reflections show how valuable they find this opportunity. For the outside students, Solomon made sure that the class did not satisfy a CCC requirement with the hope of attracting students that were genuinely interested in the class. This was successful, with Solomon saying “I think I’ve got the most engaged students in this class.”
“The Inside-Out course has definitely been the most influential class I have taken at Bucknell,” said outside student Tori Casquarelli ‘24. “This class is not fulfilling any requirements for me, nor does it apply to my major. However, being able to take a class outside of Bucknell’s campus and with non-Bucknell students has really broadened my perspective on so many topics… the discussions that happen in this classroom are truly amazing”.
Solomon commented on the success of the class as being measurable by how well the inside and outside students get along with each other. In this sense, the class has been very successful. He is very impressed with how well the students get along, especially with the outside students for how comfortable they made the inside students feel early on in the course.
“One of the issues we’ve been talking about, we’ve been talking about stereotypes of scientists, but of course that applies to stereotypes of people convicted of crimes, stereotypes of Bucknell students as rich, white, snobby, privileged, white people. And it’s been… really gratifying to see how people are able to get past these stereotypes and interact with each other as human beings.”
For the inside students, fear and uneasiness about interactions with outside students melted away upon entering the classroom.
“I had no idea how I would feel, being in a room with 12 young people who were voluntarily in prison, because I didn’t know how THEY’D feel…” said one inside student. “But they all seemed ok with us, which made me ok with them. I had an opportunity to talk with some of them prior to the start of class; they put me at ease with their ease…Being around others who love learning was refreshing. I can’t wait to step further out of my comfort zone in our safe space.”
Overall, Solomon is extremely satisfied with his Inside-Out course experience. While he personally benefited from having passionate and engaged students in his classroom, his students, both inside and outside, have really valued this experience for opening their eyes and giving them a chance to understand one another and learn together.
“Who are the people that benefit from this? The answer, of course, is everybody. From a community-engaged perspective, certainly, what I’m hearing from the inside students is that this is incredibly valuable to them, because it gives them an opportunity to do something real every week… What really matters to the inside students is just being around people who value education.”
In their reflection, an inside student had this to say: “It wasn’t that we necessarily did anything profound in class but for those two and a half hours I didn’t feel ‘less than’. I felt like a regular person, in a small way I felt free… and that is a powerful feeling!”
Solomon is hoping that with the success of this class, more students and faculty are interested in opportunities like this in the future and more Inside-Out courses can be offered. In the fall semester, Professor Vanessa Massaro will be teaching Geography 220- Cultural Geography on Wednesdays 12-4:30. There are more Inside-Out courses lined up for the next 3 years.