Balraj’s paper is titled: ‘What’s Worth Solving? An Expert Study to Identify Problem-Finding Strategies Within Socio-Scientific Issues.‘ The complexity of socio-scientific issues permeates through society’s social, political, cultural, environmental, and economic fabric. However, the question arises: how do we navigate these intricacies to identify the problems that require action? Balraj explores problem-finding processes through a modeling study wherein three STEM domain experts negotiated the controversial issue of a plastic ban in Mumbai, India. His findings indicate that the strategic use of collaborative argumentation and socio-scientific reasoning competencies can aid in identifying problems worth solving.

Balraj also generously shared his strategies for proceeding from a paper to a conference and ultimately to publication. SyMETRI members actively engaged in the discussion, asking questions regarding his methodology, reasons for choosing the experts in his study, and suggestions for improving the research method. As his doctoral dissertation builds on this work, conversing with the SyMETRI members provided a valuable venue for garnering new ideas.