Semester 1: Art - Physics - Engineering - Senior Project
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It all began when...
an engineer, artist and a physicist walked into a Senior Project . . . a semester early and made plans. David Berggren - Engineer Jeff Robin MFA - Artist Andrew Gloag - PHd in Physics |
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Followed by a trip to...
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The intense research continued...
at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. We felt that it was important to see how art is curated as well. At this point we realized that we wanted to show physics concepts as art and explain the physics that exists within art. |
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Following our trip...
we looked at David Macaulay's The Way Things Work for inspiration and to get an idea of how to approach the students with our plan to artfully show physics and vise versa. |
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Next, we discovered a real-life artist...
when we looked at the work of Christo. He made Collage Views, Plan Views, Drawings and Proof Models to describe his work and also to get funding for his projects. We thought we could use these ideas to help students to plan their projects. |
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he creation phase began...
over the summer when we came up with a sculpture, created it and then looked for the physics that could be applied to this work. We executed this project to see how it would turn out and to also see where the pitfalls lay. The proof model did not work, so we used it as an example of what not to do. |
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The students put their artistic ability to use...
in their art class where teams of two students made visuals and mathematical descriptions about how something works. This first project was meant to focus the students' minds around the concept that they are either making art about Physics and Engineering or using physics and engineering to make Art. It could have been as simple as a table and its base or as complicated as a rocket in space. The point was that the student started to think about how to clearly communicate an idea on paper and have it look good. They received help from Andrew and David with the physics and engineering aspects. Click here to see student work |
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In physics and engineering class...
students used principles that are routinely employed in the design and building of sculptures and other art work. In doing this project the students had a chance to see, first hand, how these engineering and physics principles applied to the art work of their choice. Furthermore, this project helped to open minds to the connection between art, physics and engineering. Click here to see student sculptures |
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To receive inspiration...
the students took a field trip to the Reuben H. Fleet Science center. At the center, students had the opportunity to look at various physics displays and to view ideas to eventually create their own. |
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The students received their assignment...
to create a display focusing on the physics behind art OR the art behind physics. In addition to the display, students had to create a project proposal, plan view, collage view, proof model, detailed drawings, a promotional poster, and compile a physics explanation. |
Project Proposal...
Included an introduction that explains what the project is all about. Then the students explained what the teaching goals were. After all it is school and we wanted others to learn something from these projects. Students compiled a materials list to help them see how complicated their work was going to be. Finally students created a project timeline. |
Plan View...
Students had to create a vision of their completed project including physics and engineering concepts. |
Collage View...
Next, students were asked to imagine what their completed project would look like and put it on paper. |
Proof Model...
Students then had to create a working, smaller scale version of their project.
Students then had to create a working, smaller scale version of their project.
Detailed Drawings...
Students then used CAD in David's class to create detailed drawings of their completed work.
Students then used CAD in David's class to create detailed drawings of their completed work.
Physics Explanation...
Following completion of the project each team was asked to create a poster for their project that explained the physics behind their project.
Following completion of the project each team was asked to create a poster for their project that explained the physics behind their project.
Promotional Poster...
Students also had to create a poster advertising their project to entice students and parents to come see what their project was all about.
Students also had to create a poster advertising their project to entice students and parents to come see what their project was all about.
Finished Products...
These are the finished products that are displayed around High Tech High. Some projects were already broken and some even broke on their own before exhibition night. This is one of the factors that led us to change the project for the second semmester. Curating these varied projects was quite difficult as well.
These are the finished products that are displayed around High Tech High. Some projects were already broken and some even broke on their own before exhibition night. This is one of the factors that led us to change the project for the second semmester. Curating these varied projects was quite difficult as well.
Click here to see assignment
Click here to see student work
Semester 2: Rework Scope and AssignmentsAt the end of the first semester we all felt that we needed to set parameters with the students on the scope of the projects, mostly because the cost and the size of the work the students made in the first semester was huge.
Also curating the work was difficult. There were lots of holes in the walls and the kids at the school were breaking the projects faster than we could fix them. We really wanted all the students to know about each others work, but they had to work until the bitter end and did not get a chance to learn from each other. We decided to use the school’s interior window boxes as a constraint and for display. The 24 x 24 x 5 inch windows were perfect for: Analog Flash for Windows. Analog: because most of the projects are mechanical. Flash: references the program for interactivity. For Windows: not for PC but the actual windows at High Tech High. We also built in a time line that the students had to follow, 2 weeks of development, 7 weeks of building, 3 weeks of study (each others work) and a final exam. We also had weekly check-ins with points attached so the students knew we were serious about their progress. |
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To receive inspiration for our new students...
the students took a field trip to the Reuben H. Fleet Science center. At the center, students had the opportunity to look at various physics displays and to view ideas to eventually create their own. |
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We also showed . . .
a slide show of interactive science experiments and kinetic art. We told the students their work must teach an idea to the viewer and be interactive. The work also had to be bulletproof, because the freshmen were very hard on the other projects and we did not want these to be destroyed also. |
Click to view slideshow
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Pullies by. . .
Jeff Robin AndrewGloag David Bergren The three teachers made this box to illustrate mechanical advantage. We used this to set the bar. Click here to see physics |
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Timelines and Check-ins
We used an online calendar and weekly check-ins to make sure that no one was falling behind. We were very controlling because we wanted all of the groups finished by the deadline. Click here to see calender |
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Analog Flash for Windows "The Boxes"
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Books
We had the students make books about all the projects including their own. They needed to have an image and explanation of the physics and math that went into each box. They had three weeks to put the book together, and some students created incredible work. Click to see some pages |
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Test
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Teacher Reflections
Jeff Robin
This year was important, successful and pushed me further than I have ever been from my teaching comfort zone. It was important because the students, teachers, and community fell in love with the results. I was impressed with the end results because the kids were able to produce such cool projects. I guess you could say that they are more comfortable with physics and math than I thought. The fact that the students made incredible art about science and physics instead of art history may have to do with the familiarity that students have with science. After all they have taken many more years of science than art.
The educational tourists that visit the school were also equally excited to see art about science instead of the "unknown" art history inpired creations. This project was a little anti-intellectual in the sense that physics is an easy thing for anyone to relate to, we all feel gravity and most educated people understand the science behind these projects. In a sense, this project is POP ART for educators. The students took the vernacular of the everyday science class room and made art. Warhol would have been proud. And I can be as smug as he was. I could say, “These simple people that are scared of ambiguous art ideas. They gravitate to and at marvel at my student’s creations, all because the subject is something they can touch and feel.” No one will probably read through this so my contempt for the concreteness of science will go unnoticed.
I do hope that the students had fun and went away with a feeling of success since they designed and executed their work in such a competent and beautiful way. Jeff Robin
Andrew Gloag
As the math teacher for the seniors, this project allowed me to be a real force behind one of the most successful projects I have seen at High Tech High. The project was extremely rigorous and really did involve integration across multiple subjects. It was incredibly rewarding to be part of something that led all the students to really get excited and involved with the technical side of what they were doing ? the ?group learning? session that we had left everyone wishing we had more time to question each other on their projects. In education this is, sadly, a rare occurrence. Nonetheless, after two hours of learning and teaching each other everyone felt that they could still do more to prepare themselves for the final examination. The feeling of wanting more that I feel we instilled in them that day is something that teachers are constantly trying to elicit in their students.
The project itself was squarely based around the physics and math from the start ? it seems to me that in order to do truly integrated projects this is a necessary concession to make. There are many aspects of mathematics that apply to projects in high school but in order to ensure that those that we focus on are the ones that we think of as our curriculum we need to use those aspects as the framework upon which we hang the ideas and creativity of the students. Although in the second semester we imposed restrictions to force a degree of uniformity to the projects it simply sharpened the focus on the math and science and the creative force from the students was honed into making work that was of a higher quality and really beautiful not just different from everyone else?s. They were collectively creating the model as they progressed ? pushing the bar higher by looking at what every other group was doing and adapting their own product to keep ahead of the pack.
Everyone had a chance to shine in the second phase of this collaboration. Physics is simply communicating the workings of the world in the language of mathematics. It?s as much about the communicating as it is about the math.
David Berggren
I must start by saying that I was a little skeptical of exactly how an art teacher, a math teacher and an engineering teacher were going to come together to create a meaning and quality senior project. Thanks to Jeff’s visions and ideas and the hard work of all, this project has turned out to be one of the best I have done in my 5 years of teaching since coming out of industry and one which I am very proud of.We went through many ideas, in the beginning, as to what a project that involved the three of our classes might look like and although many seemed good a first glance we realized they were a bit of a stretch for some of the classes’ content. I feel this is all too common in cross disciplinary projects in which one class tends to dominate a large portion of the content. After many ideas we felt the science center type exhibits best fit all three of our class contents with great math, physics, and engineering concepts as well as artistic appeal and aesthetics.
As to why I feel we had the successes we did with this project I would mostly attribute it to early planning and research as well as the combination of the three of our skill sets. I feel this project really pulled from all three classes very well and had the teacher’s knowledge, skills and tools to support it very well. Also our trip to San Francisco to visit the Exploratorium and other museums was a tremendous asset for us to get ideas and visions as well as do some concentrated planning away from the distraction of school and home.
The last item in which I would like to reflect on is how the students approached, worked through and learned from this project. As with every project you are constantly thinking about student engagement and learning. I was so excited to see this project unfold and blossom as the students dove right into it, took pride in their work and strode to create high quality work. I feel the structure that was set before hand with weekly check-ins as well as a fun and real project had much to do with this. The students gave it their all pushed by the idea that their projects were going to be displayed all around school and that all the visitors, students and faculty were going to gaze upon their work and learn from them. I suppose I could go on and on about this project because it was so successful but enough is enough. Thanks to both of my partners for making this such a fun and rewarding project.
Jeff Robin
This year was important, successful and pushed me further than I have ever been from my teaching comfort zone. It was important because the students, teachers, and community fell in love with the results. I was impressed with the end results because the kids were able to produce such cool projects. I guess you could say that they are more comfortable with physics and math than I thought. The fact that the students made incredible art about science and physics instead of art history may have to do with the familiarity that students have with science. After all they have taken many more years of science than art.
The educational tourists that visit the school were also equally excited to see art about science instead of the "unknown" art history inpired creations. This project was a little anti-intellectual in the sense that physics is an easy thing for anyone to relate to, we all feel gravity and most educated people understand the science behind these projects. In a sense, this project is POP ART for educators. The students took the vernacular of the everyday science class room and made art. Warhol would have been proud. And I can be as smug as he was. I could say, “These simple people that are scared of ambiguous art ideas. They gravitate to and at marvel at my student’s creations, all because the subject is something they can touch and feel.” No one will probably read through this so my contempt for the concreteness of science will go unnoticed.
I do hope that the students had fun and went away with a feeling of success since they designed and executed their work in such a competent and beautiful way. Jeff Robin
Andrew Gloag
As the math teacher for the seniors, this project allowed me to be a real force behind one of the most successful projects I have seen at High Tech High. The project was extremely rigorous and really did involve integration across multiple subjects. It was incredibly rewarding to be part of something that led all the students to really get excited and involved with the technical side of what they were doing ? the ?group learning? session that we had left everyone wishing we had more time to question each other on their projects. In education this is, sadly, a rare occurrence. Nonetheless, after two hours of learning and teaching each other everyone felt that they could still do more to prepare themselves for the final examination. The feeling of wanting more that I feel we instilled in them that day is something that teachers are constantly trying to elicit in their students.
The project itself was squarely based around the physics and math from the start ? it seems to me that in order to do truly integrated projects this is a necessary concession to make. There are many aspects of mathematics that apply to projects in high school but in order to ensure that those that we focus on are the ones that we think of as our curriculum we need to use those aspects as the framework upon which we hang the ideas and creativity of the students. Although in the second semester we imposed restrictions to force a degree of uniformity to the projects it simply sharpened the focus on the math and science and the creative force from the students was honed into making work that was of a higher quality and really beautiful not just different from everyone else?s. They were collectively creating the model as they progressed ? pushing the bar higher by looking at what every other group was doing and adapting their own product to keep ahead of the pack.
Everyone had a chance to shine in the second phase of this collaboration. Physics is simply communicating the workings of the world in the language of mathematics. It?s as much about the communicating as it is about the math.
David Berggren
I must start by saying that I was a little skeptical of exactly how an art teacher, a math teacher and an engineering teacher were going to come together to create a meaning and quality senior project. Thanks to Jeff’s visions and ideas and the hard work of all, this project has turned out to be one of the best I have done in my 5 years of teaching since coming out of industry and one which I am very proud of.We went through many ideas, in the beginning, as to what a project that involved the three of our classes might look like and although many seemed good a first glance we realized they were a bit of a stretch for some of the classes’ content. I feel this is all too common in cross disciplinary projects in which one class tends to dominate a large portion of the content. After many ideas we felt the science center type exhibits best fit all three of our class contents with great math, physics, and engineering concepts as well as artistic appeal and aesthetics.
As to why I feel we had the successes we did with this project I would mostly attribute it to early planning and research as well as the combination of the three of our skill sets. I feel this project really pulled from all three classes very well and had the teacher’s knowledge, skills and tools to support it very well. Also our trip to San Francisco to visit the Exploratorium and other museums was a tremendous asset for us to get ideas and visions as well as do some concentrated planning away from the distraction of school and home.
The last item in which I would like to reflect on is how the students approached, worked through and learned from this project. As with every project you are constantly thinking about student engagement and learning. I was so excited to see this project unfold and blossom as the students dove right into it, took pride in their work and strode to create high quality work. I feel the structure that was set before hand with weekly check-ins as well as a fun and real project had much to do with this. The students gave it their all pushed by the idea that their projects were going to be displayed all around school and that all the visitors, students and faculty were going to gaze upon their work and learn from them. I suppose I could go on and on about this project because it was so successful but enough is enough. Thanks to both of my partners for making this such a fun and rewarding project.