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Emergence: Exploring Art & Science Through Nature

March 16, 2024

Shumit DasGupta & Tim Nunes

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Discuss

“If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

  • Rachel Carson

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Emergence: Exploring Art & Science Through Nature

March 16, 2024

Shumit DasGupta & Tim Nunes

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What to Expect: Some goals for today

  • To show that science and art are not distinct from each other- the separation is artificial
  • To present some ways of thinking that can accommodate both at best, and blur the distinction at also best.
  • To have a wonderful time.

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What to Expect

Emergence: Exploring Art and Science Through Nature

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Can art help us to learn about the science of the natural world? Can science support the creation of powerful art? Are there substantive, meaningful connections between art and science? Join us in exploring the wonder and beauty of art and science, seeking out their areas of overlap. No prior art or science experience requiredd.

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Today’s motorcycle ride

  • Our bike is Science & Art through Nature
  • Emergence is our sidecar

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Emergence: some other people’s thoughts

“Something that emerges in the whole that isn’t obvious or predictable from what you know about the individual pieces.”

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-Michael Dennin, professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine

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Agenda

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  • Warm-Up
  • Welcome & Intro
  • Exploring Nature Outside
  • BREAK
  • Exploring Nature Inside
  • Lunch
  • Exploring Nature Outside
  • BREAK
  • Reflection
  • Synthesis & Application
  • Closing & Feedback

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What NOT to Expect

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  • “Sit & Get”
  • Curriculum / Lesson Plans
  • All the things

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Getting Ready to Go Outside

What to bring:

  • clipboard (on back table)
  • Tray (on back table)
  • Layers
  • something to write with (on back table)
  • optional: something to take photos with

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We will bring:

  • tissues
  • sunscreen
  • hand wipes
  • gloves
  • magnifying lenses
  • snacks

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Reflection

  • What did you have to do, know, or figure out to make your storyboard?

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  • What skills and/or thinking processes did you use

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  • Where could you go next with something like this?

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ART

SCIENCE

ART

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Emergence is our sidecar

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Beautiful……but why?

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Plant pigment chromatography: Set-up

  • You have 5 pigments at your table- try to make sure your table group hits as many as possible

(Carrot, spinach, red beet, golden beet, blueberry)

  • Set up beaker like the picture
  • Make a ‘dot’ of plant juice 2-3 cm above bottom of the filter paper with a pipette
  • Label your strips- WITH A PENCIL

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Is it Emergence? Plant pigment chromatography

  • Tape strips to pencil so that dots are ABOVE the surface of the solvent, and that dots to not get ‘wet’ with solvent
  • Let solvent crawl up paper while we paint
  • What do you notice? What do you wonder?

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Emergence: some other people’s thoughts

“Something that emerges in the whole that isn’t obvious or predictable from what you know about the individual pieces.”

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-Michael Dennin, professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine

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Is it Emergence?

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Storytime: The Dot

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Is it Emergence? The Obliteration Room

By artist Yayoi Kusama

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The Obliteration Room: Is it emergence?

Before

During

After

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Is it Emergence? Collective Dot painting

  • Make a paint or two or three
  • Paint dots WITH ABANDON- do not worry!
  • Paint until someone hands you their card- then you are done. GO FOR VOLUME
  • Pass the card to the left hand side.
  • Wash, rinse, repeat until we have ART.

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Return to plant pigment chromatography

  • Look at your filter paper now
  • What do you notice? What do you wonder? Discuss
  • See other peoples set-up- similar? Different?
  • Straight ABC content

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Timers!

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Plant pigmentation: reading and reading strategy

  • Reading strategy: Confirm, Exclaim, Question
  • Confirm: ✅
    • For passages that confirm what you already knew
  • Exclaim: ❗
    • For passages that surprise you or tell you something you didn’t know
  • Question: ❓
    • For passages that you have questions about
  • Group share out in : 1 ✅, 1 ❗, 1 ❓in 7 min

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Plant pigment chromatography: Is it Emergence?

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  • Is it?
  • Why or why not?

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Science? Art? Nature? All of the Above?

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Emergence: some other people’s thoughts

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  • “The instructions aren’t anywhere- the instructions come out of the way the colony lives and behaves.”
  • -E.O Wilson, Harvard Biologist

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Deborah Gordon, Stanford Biologist, 8:32-11:00

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Lunch

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please be here ready to go by

1:10

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June 28, 2023

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Outside Time

What to bring:

  • clipboard
  • Layers
  • something to write with
  • optional: something to take photos with

​

We will bring:

  • tissues
  • sunscreen
  • wipes
  • gloves
  • magnifying lenses
  • snacks

​

​

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Nature & Art & Science Stories

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  • What did this person / these people have to do, know, or figure out to do this?

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  • What skills and/or thinking processes did they use?

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Learner Hat Reflection (10 min)

  • What was that experience like for you as a learner?
  • What are you taking away from today
  • What would you like to do next?

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A Few Strategies for Art & Science Integration

  1. Start with nature
  2. Find process connections
  3. Engage Multiple Art Forms

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“If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

  • Rachel Carson

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Application ( if time)

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How might you adapt what you experienced today for your own context?

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      • what strategies did you notice for how we explored the art? for how we explored the environment? for anything else we did today?
      • how might you adapt these strategies for other contexts? for your grade level?
      • what environments could your students explore in this way? what could they create from those environments as scientists or artists?

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Thank You!

please fill out our feedback form.

June 28, 2023

Shumit DasGupta & Tim Nunes

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Questions?

yourname@calacademy.org

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Thank you

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