An artistically scientific idea.

We have a box of teaching cards in our care that we have fondly named “Old School Idea Cards”. They date back to 1971, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. The cards seem to be directed primarily toward younger children but the ideas throughout are ageless. I drew a card that says it combines art and science by inviting children to hang various random items onto a strip of cardboard that hangs by yarn at each end-a mobile of sorts. They can use all sorts of found inters like paperclips, paper strips, plastic pieces, paper cups, popsicle sticks, paper plates, stickers, tape or whatever else they reuse on campus. The result is an opportunity to explore suspension, balance and motion in a visual format. What a great idea, making a mobile. It can be an individual process or a collaboration with a partner. Trying ideas, processing information, getting swept into wonder… a natural place for the human mind to settle…