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Last August, I participated in a workshop with two artists/art teachers
from Oakland out at the Exploratorium.  At the end they gave us a sheet
with 8 cognitive processes involve in creating art.  Five of those were
immediately translatable to science without even changing their wording.
I can't lay my hands on the sheet right now, but I do remember that
observation was only one of the eight (and of the five, of course).  

Science is a knowledge creation process - see the Exploratorium's
Process Skills workshop guide for a really fine discussion of the
activities (incuding, but going well beyond, observation) involved in
doing science.  Go to
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/workshops/fundamentals/index.html and
click on Process Skills, then download the guide (you may need to
register).

Another useful approach is found in Costa and Kallick's Habits of Mind
books.  They describe and classify the thinking behaviors we would like
students to develop and mention a few that are not typically on other's
lists such as "Finding humor" and "Managing impulsivity."

We use Michael Gelb's "Da Vincian Principles" in some of the work we do.
These are 7 attributes of Leonardo's thinking, according to Gelb, that
can be learned and practiced.  They include observation as part of using
all of our senses to gather information (Sensazione in Gelb's Italian
category names), but also such things as embracing uncertainty (Sfumato,
which is my personal favorite).  On of the principles, "Arte/Sciencia,"
speaks explicitly to merging the creative and analytical domains to
produce deeper knowledge. 

Dave

David L. Smith, Ph.D.
Director of Professional Development
Da Vinci Science Center, Allentown, PA 
http://www.davinci-center.org

Engage, Explore, Share



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonah Cohen
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 11:06 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: An observation on observation
>> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of chuck howarth
> 
> Mac is right about this, guys.  Observation is equally 
> important in art
> 
> and many other disciplines as in science.   Observation is necessary  
> but not sufficient to define science.  Chuck
> --------------------------
> 
> See, I'll agree that observation is not the >entirety< of 
> science, not by a long shot. But then - and I'm not going out 
> on much of a limb here
> - I don't think any one facet of the process can be 
> sufficient to define the whole shebang that is science.
> 
> I'll also note that just because it's equally important in 
> art, doesn't mean it's not a key part of science, too. Off 
> the top of my head, a few other things common to the 
> scientific + artistic processes:
> 
> * Creativity/challenging orthodoxy. (What, you think Einstein 
> or Darwin didn't come up with radically original ideas?)
> * Trial + error/practice
> * Researching previous bodies of work
> * Visualization (hellooooo, Feynman)
> * Practicality (art may exist for purely aesthetic reasons 
> but it could try to make a socio/political impact, too; 
> science may exist purely for knowledge's own sake, or it make 
> try to have practical applications)
> 
> I guess that just as observation alone doesn't equal the 
> entirety of science, the absence of any one facet of the 
> process doesn't mean it isn't science. I wouldn't say that 
> the ancient astronomers of the world who mapped the 
> stars/planets and their positions/movements somehow weren't 
> doing "real" science, just because they didn't devise the 
> laws of gravity that govern those movements. Or that a kid 
> walking in the woods checking out the birds/mushrooms/rocks 
> in a back yard isn't doing science just because he/she has no 
> theories on how the rocks formed or whatnot.
> 
> Jonah Cohen
> Outreach & Public Programs Manager
> The Children's Museum
> 
> 
> "If you hear only one song this year, there's something 
> terribly wrong with you."
>     -They Might Be Giants
> 
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