The light changed.
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 Even before Daylight Saving Time ended on Sunday, the shadows had lengthened and the sunlight was a little thinner.
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 Third grade explored light.
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 And dark. |
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Students broke up into pairs in science class to test the shadows (and reflections) cast by different materials.
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Their teacher asked them to sort the materials into three categories.
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She did not tell them what the categories should be.
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 Using their choices, she introduced new vocabulary: transparent, translucent and opaque.
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In library, these students had been creating shadow puppets.
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Students had deconstructed the books, and abstracted the illustrations.
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Next week they will begin bringing the books to life.
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When the illustrations lost their color, they lost some of their depth.
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 But they picked up the ability to move.
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 Which ones made the transition better than others? |
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 Back in science class, the third graders experimented with paper shadow puppets. |
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 What happened when the puppets were close to the screen? |
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 What happened when they were close to the light? |
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 What happened when the light moved?
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 What did that have to do with focusing a projector? |
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 Three-dimensional objects were introduced. |
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 How did those change as they rotated?
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 Shadows have height and width, but do they have depth? |
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 One student asked: is there a three-dimensional shape whose shadow did not change when it rotated?
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He answered his own question, and the class gathered around to test his theory.
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 What did this have to do with the moon?
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 What did this have to do with a solar eclipse?
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 In the seventh and eighth grade art elective, another dimensional transformation was happening.
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 Flat pieces of cardboard were becoming ornate buildings.
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 The buildings were scale models of existing structures.
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 It was a geography lesson, an architecture study and a cross-cultural research project.
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 It also involved a great deal of math.
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Fourth grade was comparing base ten and base twelve in their math time.
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In Middle School art, they were switching between the two freely, with a simple flip of the ruler.
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It was easier when they had their hands free.
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 Holding a tricky piece in place while the glue set, a teacher and student struggled to calculate circumference using radius, converting centimeters to inches, in their heads.
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And the math was simply the foundation for larger questions...
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 ...questions like: can we call back the caretaker at the Gropius House with a few more questions?
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