The University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Department of Education and private enterprise group Millapore Sigma are combining forces to give instructors and next year’s fourth through sixth-grade students a hands-on educational and entertaining opportunity for science, art and application based discovery.
TACoS or The Artful Craft of Science is a summer program, from June 11 – 15, that primarily focuses on introducing students to how science blends in with everyday processes and applications using creativity and problem solving rather than deep science.
“The biggest gap that teachers talk about in science classrooms is a steady disconnect between the hard science and its practical application in careers and real-life problems,” Cybersecurity Education and Research Center & Lab Faculty Member Mike Borowczak said. “How we effectively make science, technology, engineering, art and math relevant and integrate them into the classroom and a broader understanding is very important.”
TACoS camp will offer three main study or process areas for about 13 students per study area. Each area will have three instructors assigned making the student to teacher ratio about four students to each instructor. The different areas of scientific focus will include agriculture, computer science and artwork.
“We want students and teachers to see that science is everywhere but that it doesn’t always involve a white lab-coat or a brick and mortar laboratory,” Borowczak said. “We’re trying to show students and educators that process and discovery outside the box is just as much a key to open locks about understanding as the traditional laboratory or classroom.”
The goals and outcomes projected will allow students to see how science, engineering and art interact to make things usable in the real world. It is important to understand the fundamental science and aesthetics behind tools and processes in order to improve upon them.
“In the past we’ve done smaller projects but we’ve seen a much more invigorated response from the students involved with a larger scale, more multi-layered approach,” UW Associate Professor of Teacher Education Andrea Burrows said. “Then on Friday, we will have an open house where the parents and students can mix, see and talk about their final products and the processes they used to solve problems along the way.”
Students will have the opportunity to work with and discuss physical and chemical processes as they take place in front of them while using cyanotypes to create imagery from microbiological references. The students will also have to consider elements of art while creating their final projects using photograms as their medium. The processes use chemistry and the interaction between metals and salts to create light reactivity. Cyanotype is non-toxic, safe and easy to watch as the process takes place.
“This year we’re aiming for a larger scale and a more layered process to get a final product,” UW Academic Professional and Photography Instructor Bailey Russel said. “Each student will come away with a physical object or artwork related to the process and materials related to our scientific questions related to microbes.”
There are currently only a few spots remaining in the TACoS camp and there is a waitlist available if openings fill. This is the fourth year of The Artful Craft of Science. Check uwpd.com or contact Andrea Burrows at 761-766-5011 for more information.
