February 2013
Published in this months issue of the ASCD Educational Leadership publication is an article written by Robert Root-Bernstein and Michele Root-Bernstein called The Art and Craft of Science. The authors provide many examples of individuals and their success in science that is founded on their experiences, knowledge and skills in art.
The article begins with this:
Scientific discovery and innovation can depend on engaging more students in the arts.
Suppose you have a talented child with a profound interest in science. This child has a choice of going to an academically elite high school or to a high school where the curriculum focuses on training mechanics, carpenters, and designers. Where do you send her? It’s a no-brainer, right? To the academically elite high school.
Except that Walter Alvarez, a doctor and physiologist of some renown, decided to send his scientifically talented son, Luis, to an arts and crafts school where Luis took industrial drawing and woodworking instead of calculus. Big mistake? Not exactly. Luis Alvarez won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1968. He attributed his success to an uncanny ability to visualize and build almost any kind of experimental apparatus he could imagine (Alvarez, 1987).
Suppose you have a baby Einstein. The question is, would you know it? After all, Einstein was certainly not a standout in his mathematics and physics classes. Yet he also ended up with a Nobel Prize.
You can read the entire article at this link.
me arts ed 