hen people think about science, they tend to think any other point in history,” said Caswell. “We tap into
about chemistry or biology,” said Dr. Ken Caswell, that by creating learning environments that provide
chemistry and environmental science instructor at the opportunities for students to learn about topics that
University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM). are contextually interesting to them. We approach
“It’s important to remember that science is the process of these courses as experiential learning opportunities, as
investigation to establish evidence-based information through opposed to putting up four white walls.”
experimentation; it underlies everything we do, from brushing
our teeth or making a sandwich to simply driving down Local industry leaders including Big Top, Darwin
the road.” Or, apparently, brewing a tasty adult beverage. Brewing, Green Bench Brewing, Cigar City Brewing,
Coppertail Brewing, Calusa Brewing, Motorworks
Investigation and experimentation are at the core of Brewing and Florida Worldwide Citrus generously
USFSM’s elective beverage courses. Established in donate their time, resources, facilities and advice to
spring 2015, these courses introduce the science enrich the beer science courses by providing students
underlying aspects of beer, its brewing process and with real-world context for their studies and research
pairings with food. The Introduction to Beer Science outside of the classroom.
and Chemistry and Microbiology of Beer courses focus
on hospitality and science, respectively, but they are With a diverse range of majors represented in both
proudly interdisciplinary. courses, Caswell does not expect to create a wave of
brew masters. Rather, his goal is to inspire students to
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“Nowadays, students have incredibly high tech pursue a lifelong exploration of learning experiences
devices with more information at their fingertips than that are relevant to their individual interests.