sciencechoreography

Module Goals CMT/CAPT Goals Background Getting Started Activity Videos Powerpoints Evaluation Additional Comments FAQ

Module Goals include:

• To introduce how scientific knowledge is formulated using genes and Mendel as an example
• To engage and motivate student interest in science through the arts

CMT/CAPT Goals

• Selected sections of the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) Handbook relating to this science choreography module are highlighted in red at this link (and here for the Connecticut Academic Performance Test — CAPT)

Background

• Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, played a central role laying the foundation for modern biology, and plays a central role early in the piece, Ferocious Beauty: Genome (FBG)
• This module is pivoted around the Mendel video clip in FBG
• Several toolbox activities and a poem by Mendel are ideally suited for use in the module
• We also use a section of FBG in which contemporary scientists talk with Gregor Mendel

Getting Started – some suggestions:

• Start with a clip from the introduction Big Dance – students become accustomed to the three media
• Discuss the multimedia nature of FBG – dance, video, music – vote on favorite
• Talk about the unusual project – a collaboration between a dance choreographer and scientists
• Show Mendel video clip – preview questions below in PowerPoint and then come back to these questions after showing the clip
  • Choreography?
    • Which did you like more?
      • Dance
      • Video
      • Music
      • All three
    • Symbolism?
      • Who/what do you think the dancers represent?
      • What is the significance of chess?
      • Whose names float by?
      • Who does Mendel dance or not dance with?

Activities – choose from:

• Warm-up: 8-4-2-1; Freeze movements
• The Ask A Question tool is very effective in encouraging students to think themselves about topics
  • What did you have for breakfast this morning?
  • What comes to mind when you think of an artist?
  • What comes to mind when you think of a scientist?
• The Equivalents tool 
brings movements to words, e.g. phrases in bold in poem by Mendel 
  • “The highest goal of earthly ecstasy,
 that of seeing when I arise from the tomb, 
my art thriving peacefully among those who would come after me…”
  • Reshow the portion of the Mendel clip based on this poem (with simultaneous poem recitation of text – see downloads and below)
• In the closing section of Mendel’s dance in Ferocious Beauty Genome, modern day scientists imagine conversations with Gregor Mendel.  This video clip (see downloads and below) works very well to close the classroom session.

Resources

• Videos
  • Videos of classroom experiences using toolbox activities
    • Warm-up
    • Ask A Question
    • Equivalents
  • Video of student and teacher reflections
• PowerPoint Slides
  • These PowerPoint slides can be used to introduce science choreography and the video clips from Ferocious Beauty: Genome (see downloads)

Evaluation

• Homework assignment: student reflections on the classroom experience
  • Examples of student reflections

Additional Comments

• Clips from Ferocious Beauty: Genome provide launching points for classroom sessions – a second textbook
• Introduce clips gently, starting with simple introduction Big Dance clip (video backdrop is simple) – it is hard to take in dancing, video backdrop and the music simultaneously
• Preview questions (on slide) before video clips
• The Mendel video clip provides an opportunity for students to identify with Mendel and to ask questions
  • What questions would you like to ask Mendel?
  • What new information would you like to tell Mendel?
  • What questions would Mendel ask modern-day scientists?
  • A section from FBG shows contemporary scientists talking with Mendel
• An initial version of this classroom module might use FBG video clips but not use movement activities
• Plan a homework assignment such as “write reflections on the session” (helps to focus students)
• Explore toolbox for other classes – for example, “Ask A Question” is an excellent warm up for any science or non-science class
• Avoid classroom groups larger than about 50 students (our experience suggestions larger groups do not work well)
• Opportunity to discuss visitors as role models in science – students, teachers, researchers
• Reflections from Francis Collins, Director of the NIH:  Mendel emerges as the narrator… of this whole tale… In the beginning, Mendel is so alone, so by-himself, thinking his thoughts, counting off his peas, playing his chess-game–and it is sort of a mathematical game–and he’s all there alone, and then as you build that piece, and the names start to appear on the screen and others start to arrive on the stage, we get the sense of this march of human understanding of what Mendel started and how it’s being spread, through all of these other experiments into other areas into ultimately an understanding of ourselves that Mendel never glimpsed. And as the names appear, at a greater and greater font size, and more and more piled on top of each other, until the screen is bright and the stage is full of people, I get the feeling that now we’re ALL up there, and that’s what you’re trying to tell us, that we HAVE all been drawn into this, like it or not, that this exploration of inheritance of DNA, of the genome, is something we can’t afford to stay outside of. We have to be pulled into it.

FAQ

• [Frequently asked questions will be added  here based on feedback]

Equivalents tool: Mendel’s dance in Ferocious Beauty: Genome includes a section (above) in which he expresses movements for the words of a poem he composed.  We use his poem in the classroom as a way to connect art and science.

In the closing section (above) of Mendel’s dance in Ferocious Beauty: Genome, modern day scientists imagine conversations with Gregor Mendel.