Working with ceramics is an art. Biology is a science. The two intersect for professor of biology and associate provost Dr. Stacey Hettes, who says she loved working with clay even as a child. 
 
Hettes has taught ceramics classes during Interim with local artist Ann Gleason. Her time in the ceramics studio has influenced her approach to experiential teaching in her biology lab classes. 
 
Hettes says it’s important to push beyond what’s been done before in both realms. 
 
“Most successful scientists are the most creative scientists, and they’re also the risk-takers. Most successful artists are, of course, the most creative artists and also the risk-takers,” she says. “We can teach our students in both realms to put themselves out there and not be afraid to fail.” 
 
Hettes says working in the ceramics studio with students and on her personal projects has opened new doors for creativity and ways to solve problems. 
 
“Having some of the same students in an art studio class and a science lab – it was really exciting for me as a teacher to see the different ways we would interact,” she says. “It all encourages students to think more creatively and think a little differently about the problem-solving. The two shape each other.”