DIAS event with Chunfang Zhou: Creativity in STEM Education - Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of AI

Creativity is widely recognized as one of the key skills for the 21st century. Its importance has been increasingly emphasized in STEM education. Scientific creativity can be understood as ways of thinking or behaviors that are both novel and useful. It encompasses the ability to make new discoveries, design experiments, solve scientific problems, and engage in diverse scientific activities. It also manifests as ‘everyday creativity’, which situates learning in daily life, values individual experiences, and emerges in ordinary contexts. In this sense, creativity is not reserved for extraordinary breakthroughs but often happens when scientists, technicians, engineers, or mathematicians approach routine tasks in new and meaningful ways.
 
In technology-supported learning environments, creativity becomes increasingly complex, involving not only human imagination and problem-solving but also dynamic interactions with artifacts, digital tools, platforms, and AI systems. The rise of AI technologies has transformed creativity from a primarily human-centered capacity into a human–technology co-creation phenomenon. Human-AI co-creativity therefore comes to the forefront, requiring learners to navigate the tension between human imagination and machine intelligence while developing new literacies to interpret, evaluate, and co-create with technologies.
 
This complexity drives the focus of this presentation: How can we understand creativity in STEM education? What challenges and opportunities emerge in fostering creativity in the age of AI? And how can human-AI co-creative learning experiences be strengthened? Through these questions, this presentation will also bring reflections on how we might reshape the future of learning and extend human creativity with AI in STEM education.

About Chunfang Zhou
Chunfang Zhou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark. She is the leader of AI Learning Lab, focusing on Human-AI Co-Creative Learning Experience, AI-Assisted Pedagogy Design, Teacher Education, and AI Professional Education, and Co-Director for Research and Academic Excellence, STEM Education Research Center. 

Chunfang Zhou's research mainly focuses on Creativity and Technology in STEM Education and Science Communication/Citizen Science, in a broad area of Science, Technology and Society (STS), with particular interests in:  

• Problem and Project-Based Learning
• Teacher Education and Professional Development
• AI, Digital Technologies and Education
• Human-Technology Interaction
• Playful Learning
• Participatory Science
• Design Thinking
• Sustainability
• Care and Well-Being 
• Ethics and Responsible Innovation
• Philosophy of Science and Technology
• Eastern/Chinese Culture/China Studies 

Venue: DIAS Auditorium, SDU Odense

All are welcome - no registration required