Action Research - Art & Moon Phases

EER <eroettge@condor.depaul.edu>, February 2000

My hypothesis:

Students who have art background or instruction learn the main idea of lunar phases (directional light illuminating a spherical object, seen from different angles) more easily and thoroughly than those without art background or instruction.

Background:

I tried to remember how I learned moon phases, and kept being reminded of basic drawing lessons - particularly still lifes.  That's where I learned that to make an object look spherical, you have to perceive the 3-dimensional light and shadows in two-dimensional (projection) space.  I think this minor training made it easier to see the apparently flat vision of the Moon and interpret it as a three-dimensional object.   The next step is to see if this works for others.

A colleague finds that art and drafting students do well in structural geology -- this seems to follow the same principle of 2- and 3-dimensional objects and perceptions.

Research Approaches:

1. Teach lunar phases.  Give a pre- and post-test, possibly along the lines of "why did the moon change shape from one night to a few nights later?"  At the same time, either ask questions to find out students' previous art/drawing/drafting experience, or light a sphere from above in a darkened room and ask the students to sketch it.
2. Collaborate with an art teacher to arrange for still-life or object-drawing lessons around the time you teach lunar phases.  Compare the results to previous experiences, or to students or another class without the art instruction.  Document whether you make the connection explicit to the students or not.
3. Teach a bit of geometry, and in doing so, teach the relevant drawing technique.   Continue as in #2.
4. There are probably other ways of testing the hypothesis.