A Moving Field Guide

Seeing the World

Science starts with noticing the world – what plants and animals do, the changes in vegetation over time – or in wondering what’s going on beneath the surfaces we see.  Careful observation continues as we devise instruments or methods to extend our initial view, guided by models and concepts.  Experiments are another window for observing new conditions, perhaps ones that don’t usually exist in the real world.

Whatever makes people notice the world and its denizens more closely, or even at all, advances science and the appreciation of scientific knowledge.  I was fortunate to recently see how dance opened the eyes of about a dozen 5^th and 6^th graders from east Baltimore.  Members of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in cooperation with Dr. Mark Twery of the Forest Service and Dr. Marla McIntosh of the University of Maryland led the young people through several activities that sensitized them to their immediate environment, familiarized them with the compass directions, and provided opportunities to observe aquatic and terrestrial situations in Patterson Park.

Moving To Notice/Noticing To Move

Those of us who are trained in science are used to paying close attention to the world, guided by years of experience under the tutelage of mentors and collaboration with colleagues.  After a while it becomes a habit, and paying close attention can be almost automatic.  But how do you get a 5^th grader to notice the environment and organisms?

Members of The Dance Exchange company had a plan.  Get the kids to relax into movement.  Get them to do some simple orienteering, and ask them to observe something special and personal along the way, pay attention to each kid.  Some of the company members had backgrounds in environmental education, and along with the visiting experts, engaged in discussions that refined or generated new understanding about life, energy, and leaves of giant oak trees, seed dispersal in little leaf linden, tasty fruit of Juneberry trees, and migration of birds.  The students also thought about the connections, some plausible and some quite fanciful, that might have led to the demise of a giant mulberry tree.  

The dancers and the kids invented movements to represent the insights they learned along the way.  The swirling motion of dispersing winged seeds, the shivering collapse of a dead tree, the upward swoop of water rising in the trunks of  trees, an imagined encounter with a bushy tailed skunk that might depend on one of the trees, and the left handed, right handed, and ambidextrous shapes of mulberry leaves were some of the observations and ideas that made it into the dances.  It was a special treat to see the creative “ah ha moments” as the professional dancers translated ecological facts and observations into motions – sometimes small, and sometimes grand in scope.  These moves were combined into dances that also embodied personal reactions to the local environment, memories of trips, and events in the kids’ lives.

Dancing To Remember

Over the course of a couple hours in the park, a goodly amount of ecological knowledge was imparted or reinforced.  The two groups of students and their accompanying Dance Exchange members collaborated to generate some impressive and engaging sequences of moves.  These dance sequences became the “Moving Field Guide,” a lively phrase created by Cassie Meador of the Dance Exchange.  The Moving Field Guide added a new creative dimension to the usual records of scientists: making notes, recording measurements of dimensions and processes in the material world, and interpreting those observations in the light of existing concepts and knowledge.  Thinking about dance movement as a way to facilitate the entry of novice observers into the complexities of ecological structures and processes was new to me.  It proved to be a powerful tool, and I suspect one that will help cement new ecological knowledge for the students who helped make the Moving Field Guide, Patterson Park, June 2, 2011.

Does Science Need Art?

Here’s something to think about, from a recent article in the Business section of the Christian Science Monitor, one of the “newspapers of record” in the United States (www.csmonitor.com/business/2011/0323/What-do-Apple-GM-and-P-G-share-Design):

The need to hire 100,000 more teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math to make American students globally competitive is so urgent that President Obama has called it a ‘Sputnik moment.’  Yet a growing chorus of educators say something is missing from the plan.

‘It’s necessary but not sufficient’ to focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), says Larry Thompson, president of Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla.  ‘You don’t go anywhere with STEM if you don’t have STEAM – and that’s [adding “A” for] the arts, the creative part. 

The article goes on to illustrate how major business enterprises have used design to promote competitiveness and engage consumers.  What does this have to do with science?  The same mind-stretching and creative generation of new ideas and exploration of the connections among existing ideas that powers art is a crucial part of the scientific process.

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in The Matter of Origins. Photo by Jacyln Borowski, courtesy Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

On one hand, people connect art with free association, leaps between different images, and metaphor, while neglecting the role of discipline and planning.  In contrast, the popular mind thinks of science as a sterile, rule-based pursuit, devoid of or even hostile to creative process.  But the generation of the hypotheses to be tested, the application of new techniques or approaches, and the way studies are planned and laid out are all stages on which creativity acts.  Both scientists and society have given too little credit to the role of creativity in science.  Scientists as well as artists and writers keep journals for ideas, sketch and doodle networks of ideas and interactions, and use analogy and metaphor to generate their raw materials.

Art in all its forms -- from sculpture, through writing, to dance -- uses skills, talents, and habits that stretch the imagination and open the mind to new ideas.  So then a connection of art and science can be a part of a healthy diet for the sciences.  STEAM power, as President Thompson said.

The Baltimore Ecosystem Study is exploring this connection.  During the 2009 Annual Meeting performances and interactions with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange inaugurated our exploration of the connection between arts and science.  For more on this nationally known and environmentally and scientifically engaged dance company, see http://danceexchange.org/  Did the experience of resilience through the eyes of artists help the socio-ecological researchers think more clearly or creatively about the concept?  That’s hard to document.  But the opportunity to ask ourselves such questions as these seems important: What does my research have to do with art?  What images and connections does art suggest that have parallels in science?  What does my work say that can be represented in some artistic way?  Or perhaps simply the opportunity to open the mind, and take a chance on a new way of seeing a problem or a solution is good enough.

More interactions are planned with the Dance Exchange, which is headquartered in Takoma Park, MD. With the participation of USDA Forest Service researchers, members of BES, and school and after-school programs, members of the Dance Exchange will lead participating children in the creation of ‘moving field guides,’ a live, performative collection that animates local ecology in the Potomac watershed through a combination of movement, visuals and the act of outdoor walking.  The project will be implemented in the spring and summer of 2011 through a series of sessions involving artists, scientists, and  approximately 50 students ages 8-12.  See more on this activity in the BES News.

We’ll also be experimenting with the connection between art and science in future BES Annual Meetings.  Illustrated “zines” by secondary school students and photography are on the agenda for the near future.  Music is a possibility too.  A little mind stretching is good for the creative aspects of science.  A little art is good for connecting with the larger world too.  These are two needs of science that art can help satisfy.