What do you want to be when you are older? A physicist!
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.010111
John Eger teaches journalism and media studies at San Diego State University. He also blogs about creativity, innovation, education, and economic development for the Huffington Post—which is where I found a heartening quote from 12- or 13-year-old girl.
In a recent blog post , Eger describes the Lux Art Institute , a museum in the Southern California beach town of Encinitas. The Lux’s current artist in residence is Rick Stich, who paints the patterns he sees or imagines he sees reflected in water. Here’s an example.
The Lux, to quote from its website, “is redefining the museum experience to make art more accessible and personally meaningful. At Lux, you don’t just see finished works of art; you see the artistic process firsthand, engaging with internationally recognized artists in a working studio environment.”
It was one of those engagements, with Stich, that provided the opening for Eger’s blog post and the inspiration for this one. As Eger tells it:
Recently one sixth grader asked: “You paint the water, but water moves so how do you do that . . . the water keeps changing, moving.” Curious, Rick commented that this was a very thoughtful question and asked “What do you want to be when you are older?” “A physicist,” she said.
Besides being delighted that a sixth grader from San Diego County wants to become a physicist, I was struck by the parallels between what the Lux Art Institute does for art and what the Exploratorium in San Francisco does for science.
Founded in 1969 by the physicist Frank Oppenheimer , the Exploratorium lets its visitors experience, through hands-on exhibits, the joy of scientific discovery unlike traditional museums that display, in glass cabinets, the fruits of scientific discovery.
Although the Lux is younger than the Exploratorium—planning for the institute began in 1998—I wonder if it has a thing or two to teach its older cousin. From Eger’s blog post I learned about a novel program called the Valise Project , which the Lux describes
as a way to reintroduce art into the classroom. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, who carried miniatures of his work inside a suitcase, Lux commissions portable works of art that double as powerful interdisciplinary teaching tools. The valises travel to hundreds of classrooms around San Diego County each year, giving students a rare up-close and hands-on experience with museum-quality art.
Wouldn’t it be great if the Exploratorium or other science institutions created their own valise projects? The objects in each suitcase wouldn’t be works of art; they’d be intriguing objects about which a teacher or other volunteer could tell a story, a story that’s interesting enough to inspire a sixth grader to become a physicist.
