We dropped by Sarah Morgan‘s busy arts class last week, to introduce opportunities for arts-integrated STEAM outreach through NW Noggin, and encourage participation from some talented art and design students at Portland State…
Students were preparing to engage in an outdoor project based on the eye-catching work of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist who arranges natural materials in ways that imply that an organizer, or designer has been at work.
We talked a little about how our brains respond and orient to novelty, and how we are motivated to figure out social puzzles, and mysteries – how understanding itself can be an enjoyable reward. Molding our environments is also a basic, primal, motivating experience; anyone with children knows firsthand that impulsive drive to get messy in the natural world, and move stuff (sand, gravel, dirt) from one location to another…
We also brought along brains (extra brains!), so students could examine the machinery of their own creative impulses, motivations and skills directly, at least from the outside…
Afterwards Jeff Leake led students in the neuron exquisite corpse exercise…
We look forward to welcoming more PSU art and design students to STEAM outreach during the coming year. Many thanks to Sarah Morgan for inviting us into her creative classroom…
