John Dewey once said: 'Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.' Our thoughts are parallel. This perspective takes the main focus from future to the present moment and supports one's present-moment awareness. One of the ways to keep people in the present might be achieved by meaningful and engaging tasks, and children are no exception.
What makes tasks meaningful and engaging?
If they:
harness children's creative thinking skills, imagination and potential of seeing the interconnectivity between various concepts.
give children space and time to be exposed to an experience; which helps them develop their awareness of the world around them as well as their ability to identify their interests and preferred learning styles.
And they can be created with the help of anything in life, not just with texts and books.
Biophilia
Biophilia, at this point, can be described as the epitome of what I have written so far about meaningful and engaging tasks. What is Biophilia? Literally, it means a love of life. It is also an album released by Björk in 2011 in which all songs have a different musicology and science theme. Each song is accompanied by an app.* All these apps enable users to play around with one or more aspects of music and to learn one or more aspects of nature. Before examining it in the educational context, let's listen to its fairytalish introduction by David Attenborough:
'Welcome to Biophilia: The love for nature in all her manifestations. From the tiniest organism, to the greatest red giant floating in the farthest realm of the universe. With Biophilia comes a restless curiosity, an urge to investigate and discover the illusive places where we meet nature - where she plays on our senses with colours, forms, perfumes and smells; the taste and touch of salty wind on the tongue. But much of nature is hidden from us, that we can neither see, nor touch, like the one phenomenon that can be said to move us more than any other in our daily lives: sound. Sound harnessed by human beings delivered with generosity and emotion is what we call ‘music’ and just as we use music to express parts of us that would otherwise be hidden, so too can we use technology to make visible much of natures invisible world. In Biophilia, you will experience how the three come together: nature, music, technology. Listen, learn, and create. Travel the cosmos lying at your finger-tips, touch the galaxies, and move through their three dimensions. Discover the different song apps as they are introduced into the constellations and explore their extra features. And should you feel lost in space, you can always use the musical compass icon to take you home. Now, forget the size of the human body. Remember, you are a gateway between the universal and the microscopic - the unseen forces that stir the depths of your innermost being and nature who embraces you and all there is. We are on the brink of a revolution that will reunite humans with nature through new technological innovations. Until we get there, prepare, explore Biophilia.' David Attenborough, introducing Björk's Biophilia app.
Biophilia in the Educational Context
Having listened to this captivating introduction from David Attenborough, let's have a look at Biophilia in an educational context.This project encourages kids to explore their own creativity while learning about music, nature, and science using apps through interdisciplinary teaching methods.
But how?
An example:
The visual was created on Canva. The photo was taken from https://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/140926565/first-listen-bj-rk-biophilia.
Let's use the song 'Cosmogony' as an example. The excerpt of this song is above. Listen to it if you wish.
After listening, scroll down a bit and click on the visuals that I've created for the song.
First, you'll see the lyrics and understand what the song is about.
Second, you'll read which disciplines can be connected via this song.
Third, you'll find the activities that are created based on the song to promote the children's creative thinking and research skills around the specific musicology, mythology and science topics with an interdisciplinary approach.** PS: Each verse tells a different creation myth from different places in the world.
Fourth, you'll read an activity idea on how I would contribute to the interdisciplinary nature of the work.
The visuals were created on Canva.
* The link for the apps accompanying each song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dlRg6lM4mQ&list=PL6F01FE989119ECA0&index=6
** The link for detailed information on the project and educational activities created for each song: https://carlobattisti.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/biophilia_pdf_ens.pdf
The link for the concert aka the pleasure for the hearts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbApYWvFEYk
Personal Opinion:
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it offers collaborative work across subjects that are not crossed, making it a very inspirational piece of work. Children are more likely to recognize connections they might have missed otherwise and to have interdisciplinary thinking toward life.
Children are provided with time and space to use their creativity and research skills in extremely related contexts. Children might feel more engaged in 'now' rather than the vague 'future' that has been implicitly at the center of education via the constant flow of preparation for the exams in the future starting from a very young age. (It is not for all education systems.)
With a balance of these kinds of examples, I think we can cultivate a joy of learning and a lifelong curiosity for learning.
What are your opinions?
Ceyda 💗
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