Pre-Ramble: Buried in the newspaper between stories about the Palin book tour and Tiger’s “bad lie” is a tiny snippet worth writing about — In an effort to show young kids “how cool science can be,” President Obama has announced that he will convene a national science fair in 2010 to honor young inventors “with the same gusto that professional athletes celebrate their victories” at the White House. Knucks to that, oh, self-proclaimed Nerd-in-Chief!

I’m fired up about this news for a couple of reasons … First, because I love science fairs!  If it involves pipe cleaners and paper Mache — I’m in!  … Adobe villages made out of popsicle sticks … the African veldt in a shoebox — bring it on! You can imagine my thrill when the kids came home with the annual science fair flyers in their backpacks. 

One year, I was able to convince my daughter to do a project on the solar system.  Designed to demonstrate the sizes of the planets relative to the sun, we called it, “What if the Sun was a Basketball?”  … The poor kid never saw it coming.  She looked on in disbelief as I raced around the kitchen in search of small round objects that could represent Mars … “Do you think it should be a marble or a pea? … Do we know anybody with a bebe gun? … What about a poppy seed for Mercury?? … How in the heck are we going to get this tennis ball to stick on the tag board???”  As I recall, we got an A on it (and nobody misses that green bocce ball).

The art of science.  The second reason I’m so charged about the White House science fest is that where there’s science, art isn’t far behind. Like art, science is the result of the inspiration of brilliant minds. From the tiniest pixel to the largest expanse of the universe, the collective scope of art and science is vast and wondrous. Whether you’re dealing with neutrinos or Neoclassicism, the same kind of inquiry and invention is at play. Designer Bruce Mau describes the symbiotic relationship between art and science:

” … My commitment to scientific knowledge in no way diminishes my belief in the mystery and power of the arts. It is art that sings to us and opens our hearts to one another. It is art that gives meaning to things that would otherwise go unnoticed … that connects us to our past … that laughs at our hubris and limitations, while speaking to us of the darkness we cannot say out loud. In the end, it is art that allows us to understand, express and share science. While science works to order the matter of the world, art orders the meaning of the world. In my practice of design these two worlds of meaning and matter, of aesthetics and scientific knowledge, of quality and quantity, of mystery and certainty, of intuition and expertise, come together to create new possibilities for shaping our world.”

The Take-Away: Put on the safety goggles and throw down some tarps – the next wave of brilliant and inspired minds is headed to Washington. In the great search for knowledge and discovery, art and science are essential elements.

Post-Note: Visions of kryptonite …  If you’re looking for an artfully scientific stocking stuffer, look no further than The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. There is also an amazing website that brings the Periodic Table of Elements to life.

Pre-Ramble: Truth be told, I am not much of a baseball fan.  The games are too long, the uniforms are goofy, and the players are always spitting.  Tonight however, I found myself rallied in the family room with my family (duh) watching the hometown Minnesota Twins battle the Detroit Tigers in extra innings for the American League Central championship.

The game was supposed to be a big deal for a bunch of reasons … the Tigers had been on top for most of the season, … the Twins had been back in the standings coming into the series, … blah, blah …  It was also likely to be the very last game that the Twins played in the hideous indoor Metrodome before taking up residence in the sparkling new Target Field stadium next season. 

Well, so, the game was crawling along … pitching, catching, foul tips, more pitching and catching … and without going into a total play-by-play, the teams had leap-frogged themselves into a 12th inning overtime situation and even I was on the edge of my seat … finally:

Alexi Casilla singled Carlos Gomez home for the winning run with one out in the 12th inning and the Twins rallied for a 6-5 victory to complete a colossal collapse for the Tigers.”

Well, phew!! … Wow!! … Quite the exciting finish.  And actually, quite an exciting coincidence as well. Several months ago, I bought a piece of children’s artwork that had been created in a partnership activity with the Minnesota Twins players to support local children’s charitable organization, Free Arts Minnesota. (Free Arts brings art and adult mentorship to abused and at-risk children.) Part of the partnership activity between Free Arts and the Twins was that the kids got to go on a field trip to a batting practice (and see the players close up), go to an actual baseball game (a first for many of them), and the kids’ artwork (that was inspired by the whole baseball experience) was signed by the various Twins’ players.

I bought the picture (shown above) because I liked its composition and bright, Andy Warhol-esque blocks of color. I also bought it to support the Free Arts mission — to bring the unique healing power of art and mentorship to abused children:

I digress: There are no words to describe the profoundly tragic circumstances that some children are subjected to at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and protect them.  Some children have seen and experienced things that no child should ever have to.  The programs that Free Arts brings into homeless shelters and foster care facilities give these kids a chance to experience something else — something positive, creative, and even fun.  By providing adult mentors who care about them, who are there for them each and every week, without fail, Free Arts gives these children new hope and courage and re-establishes their capacity to trust. By providing interesting and challenging art activities, Free Arts give these children an opportunity to create something beautiful; to be recognized for their efforts and for their talents; to explore their imaginations and express themselves in a way that many of them have never been able to. The Free Arts program gives kids an opportunity to experience themselves and the world in new ways, and to see new possibilities for themselves and their lives … !

So, I have this delightful, meaningful piece of baseball artwork, and in looking a little closer after last night’s game, I realize that it is signed by Carlos Gomez — the guy who made the spectacular run across home plate to win the championship game!

The Take-Away:  Neat! … a win-win situation all around – for me, for Carlos, for the Twins, and also for the hundreds of children who are served by Free Arts.  I wonder if the kids were watching the game?

Pre-Ramble: In the aftermath of the global finance fest in Davos, Switzerland, business and political leaders from around the world continue to wring their collective hands in search of policy level solutions to curb what is rapidly being identified as the most serious global recession since the 1930s. They’re asking themselves and each other where all this is going and what it will take to kick-start the growth needed to end it.

If American businesses and the new administration have anything to say about it, economic recovery will involve an elephant gun of bail-outs followed by a whole bunch of ”innovation.”  Intel recently ran a front-page ad in the WSJ headlined, “Today’s education. Tomorrow’s innovation,” proposing that education is the key to solving global challenges and tossing $120 million into the ring for science fairs and youth outreach. In the same issue, Shell (oil and gas) stressed the role of innovation in solving our most challenging problems stating, “In the new energy future, if it doesn’t exist, we’ll need to invent it.”  They go on to concede that “it won’t be easy; but innovative solutions rarely are.” …

Ok… sure, leaving the specifics of Shell’s renewable energy policy aside, there seems to be some kind of effort here to speak to the need for a new way of thinking. It’s one thing to invoke the “i-word”, quite another however to actually bring it about. If our political and business leadership is looking to innovation to drive economic recovery, they better take a closer look at the investments they’re making in education.

The Big Disconnect: Meanwhile, back in Minnesota… (Yes, yes, we’re still shuffling those disputed ballots around…) Governor Tim Pawlenty champions the state’s “world-class” public education system and competitive workforce, while delivering repeated body blows to state funding for the arts. Similarly, Massachusetts’ Brandeis University, proclaims art to be “the great legacy of human accomplishment, essential to interdisciplinary learning” as its curators prepare to sell off the entire collection from its esteemed Rose Art Museum — long regarded as an important teaching resource. If kids in the K-12 and higher education pipeline aren’t equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to think about things in new ways (creativity), how on earth are they supposed to merge into the workforce ready to innovate?

The Take-Away: If an innovative workforce is the goal, then step up policies and practices that foster creative thinking in the learning experience of kids. Gee,… there’s an innovative idea! 

One way we could do that is by teaching kids, beginning on the first day of pre-school, to explore ideas in different ways… maybe using shape, color, light, shadow, spacial relationships, connections, perceptions, dynamics, systems, motion, movement, tone, harmonics, intervals, blending, etc. … It could be embedded in the daily curriculum and an integral part of their everyday learning all the way up to grade 12. We could expose students to the work of great thinkers and craftsmen, and help them uncover the connections between societies and their forms of expression and invention. We could inspire children to think in new ways and prepare them to compete in a global economy. We could make this kind of creativity content a priority at the state and national levels …  We could call it art innovation education.