Toys in Everyday Science Exhibit

exhibit_illustration-by-tadashi-tokieda

In Radcliffe Yard at Harvard (Cambridge, MA), there is an exhibit by Tadashi Tokieda on Toys in Everyday Science.

It looks like fun!

This evening, as part of the Radcliffe Open Yard event, students will be staffing the exhibit.

To help people play with the toys in science.

Tadashi Tokieda is the 2013–2014 William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow, Radcliffe Institute and is spending the year hanging out and helping people understand how science (and mathematics) works.


His learning history is fascinating, and a good example to those outside the academy!

Speaking of the academy, I am saddened to report that this exhibit is not list of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture website.

Nor is there any connection to museum education methodology mentioned on the Radcliffe Institute website.

This is ironic, as what Tokieda essentially is doing the work of museum educators.

For example, look at past and current exhibits developed at museums.

Try the Exploratorium's Geometry Playground, the Acton Discovery Museums' Hands On Science, the Boston Children's Museum Science Interactives, the Museum of Science's Investigation Station, or others....

Museum educators spend a lot of time, creativity, and joy developing hands on demonstrations of scientific and mathematic principals so others can learn by doing.

It's a field of study, as well.



Look at the current issue of the Museum Educators' Roundtable journal, entitled Engaging Visitors to Create Positive Futures.  They are offering the editor's review article for all to read here.

Or go to the American Alliance of Museum's EdCom publication on principals and practice.

So when one of the high holies of academia presents something (admittedly, a wonderful something) as revolutionary and new, by virtue of the nature of its presentation and by what is funded and the nature of its funding, the subsequent reification of that approach by what is not said becomes significant.

In other words, ignoring others who are doing essentially the same work and have been doing it for a long time, continues the existing power dynamics of 1) the university as a more important site of learning than any other learning environment (school or museum or other) 2) maintaining traditional educational views of learning as content transference from the expert to the novitiate.

Ok, the Institute may fight me on the 2nd point there -- and with some reason -- but my contention here is that offering a "playful" approach as so unique and isolated as deserving of special recognition only serves to highlight the majority of the institution that isn't that.

And it also demonstrates how, once again, learning is compartmentalized and how we do not communicate with each other, despite our commonalities of subject and approach.

oy.*

The HMSC website is mentioning this Saturday's Day of the Dead event.





Think I'll go to that.

And to the Toys in Science exhibit.

After all this meta-conversation, I could use a little fun!



*Ok, sorry to get all Foucault up in your face!  Shouldn't take myself too seriously, either!

Touching Objects

"Sentiment" is a funny word....

It's first definition in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online is "an attitude, thought, or judgment prompted by feeling."

In this dictionary definition, that means emotion.  Emotion, however, can be provoked by physical sensation, such as touch.  Touching objects therefore lead to the experience of both the physicality of the object, an emotion, an invoked memory, and additional thoughts -- all within the same tangled neural network.  


A web of emotion, memory, sensation, experience, and conceptualization if you will.


At this time of year, the word "sentimentality" also comes to mind.  The holidays put many of us into a state of heightened emotionalism.  Movies such as "It's a Wonderful Life" or "A Christmas Story" are one way that many people become sentimental in December.  Yet, sentimentality has a negative connotation.   Its Merriam-Webster definition is "resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought."  Feeling and thinking should go together; they do not have to presented as binary opposites.  Touching objects link "sentiment" the noun with "sentimentality" the noun, but the net results are so different! 

Speaking of "touching...."  In fencing, there is sentiment de fer -- the fencer's understanding of the tangible aspects of blade positioning, control, and interaction with their opponent's weapon.  This term also refers to the instinctual understanding of what feels right to do within the context of a bout (situated knowing, anyone?).  Here's another definition of "sentiment de fer" which focuses more on the tangible, but emphasizes the importance of sensation.   Thus from this example, it is can be said that sentiment is not necessarily something to be scorned.  It is a way of knowing.


(We could have some extended fun with sentience and "women's ways of knowing" but really, I'm not trying to have an orgy of post-modern reflexivism here, really...)

Sentiment also connects past to present.  It is not only an old-fashioned term, but it implies remembering the past.   For example, consider the article "5 Surprising Objects with Sentimental Value" from RealSimple Magazine. As the introduction to the piece says, "Sometimes an object is just an object, and sometimes it’s so much more. Five writers describe the sentimental value within the everyday things they cherish."   These stories reveal how the physical objects manifest the memories and emotion of a life well-lived.

As so many people rush around this week, acquiring more objects to give to others as expressions of their feelings, consider the power of things to convey sentiment. 

Think as well on how many objects do not carry much emotions and memories at all.  How many things do we need, cherish, sentimentalize?

Then, please, think of others who have few of the things they need.   Consider a passing on something that is more a sentiment than an object, but will touch the lives of others in a positive way.  Here's a suggestion of one way.  Click here for additional possibilities.

So, sentimentality can be a powerful way this season to reflect on the past, embody the present, and connect to a better future. 

Happy Holidays!