Back to School with a New Perspective

Preparing for a new school year probably doesn't require the purchase of a harmonica, paint brush, and Thesaurus. Yet Einstein played the violin, Samuel Morse painted portraits, and Galileo wrote poems.

     Study after study shows the value of the arts. Playing music asks the brain to coordinate the notes eyes see and two hands play, to listen, and to recognize rhythms. Add dance and the whole body gets involved. In the process of drawing, painting, sculpturing, and writing stories, essays, and poems, students tap into their creative juices, express emotions, and discover their individual identities. Mistakes are made and corrected just as they are in every subject and life.

     Music, art, and literature connect students to each other, their communities, and the world. One study, for example, found that children who participated in a dance group for eight weeks were less prone to anxiety and aggression compared to a control group. At the same time, the arts promote the creativity and innovation needed to deal with a rapidly changing global economy.

     Consider how one kindergartner used an art project to discover there were two ways to find the total five. While one student had shown five by taking a photo of two red scissors and three blue scissors, another saw five, because the direction of four scissors pointed left and one pointed right. Math and science thrive on the same unexpected discoveries and strategies celebrated in the arts. Is there another way to do something is a question that has produced a Salvador Dali and a Thomas Edison.

Life on Jupiter's Moons?

Instead of globalization, should we be thinking about solarization, life in the solar system? A NASA photo just showed us 3 Jupiter Galilean moons: Io, Europa and Ganymede. They all are named for Greek myths.You might have guessed that they are called Galilean moons, because Galileo discovered them. But you need to do some research to find out if Jupiter has any more Galilean moons or any more moons at all.

     Of the three Galilean moons in NASA's photograph, Io is the closest to Jupiter and Ganymede is the farthest away. What does gravity have to do with these different distances? What else might influence these distances?

     You'll also have to do some research to find out if any of these moons could support life and what kind of life it would be. Knowing how far Jupiter and these moons are from the sun, we might think any life would have to be able to survive in very cold temperatures. But these moons have other interesting elements to consider. Io has 400 active volcanoes. Europa has shifting plate tectonics similar to those on Earth. Photos also show it has "water plumes" that signal the possibility of vast oceans under its surface. Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, is larger than Earth's moon, and it is the only moon with a magnetic field similar to Earth's.

     All in all, there's an interesting science project waiting here.