Perpich students present virtual reality projects at Mayo Center for Innovation

Bucking the common perception that arts and science don’t mix, a group of students from a pilot program at Perpich Arts High School will present their concepts for applications in virtual reality to a team of designers at Mayo’s Center for Innovation at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 24.

Eleven students from the high school’s ArtScience program, one of only three in the U.S. applying the Harvard-developed ArtScience curriculum, have been working on virtual reality concepts they developed in their classroom.

These include a MARS simulator program that would allow individuals to “tour” Mars, the design of a horticultural classroom environment that would help prevent “nature deficit disorder” in dense urban areas, and a “mouse maze” for humans that would allow those traveling through the maze to interact via Skype and “break down the myths” about GLBT & Q people as part of a research-based information program on the genetic components of homosexuality.

“Perpich Center, as the state agency for arts education, is always researching leading-edge ways to combat the systemic issues facing schools,” says Sue Mackert, executive director of Perpich. “Teaching and learning through the arts encourages creative problem solving and thinking, which is exactly what’s needed to positively affect student learning. With the ArtScience concept, students combine basic scientific inquiry with the arts and design process to solve societal problems through creative thinking.”

Each team of students will give a 10-minute presentation about its concept and how the team wants to bring it to fruition. Mayo designers will then take 20 minutes to offer feedback and suggestions to each group.  The students will tour the center’s space and observe how the designers work and collaborate. Both the high school and the center hope that mentorships will grow out of the meeting.

The Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation (CFI) uses a patient-centered focus to transform the experience and delivery of health care for patients everywhere. The CFI team develops groundbreaking solutions and facilitates the application of these discoveries in the practice of medicine. “We are pleased to have this opportunity to share our students’ work with the Mayo center and welcome their support and advice to our students,” Mackert says.

The ArtScience Prize is an international program based in Boston and Paris that supports young people to develop innovative art and design ideas that are both personally and societally relevant.  Students at ArtScience sites such as Perpich work with an annual scientific theme (this year, virtual reality) to conceive, translate and realize their own ideas. A major goal of the program is to help students combine aesthetic and analytical ways of thinking, working across disciplines, and finding a “community of support.”

Participating in the ArtScience curriculum includes the opportunity to compete for a share of a $100,000 prize for the best innovative art and design idea at the cutting edge of science.  The group that wins the ArtScience Prize receives the largest share of the funding and a trip to Paris to attend an Idea Translation Workshop at Le Laboratoire in Paris, France.

Other sites in the U.S. are in Boston and Oklahoma City; international sites are in Paris; Singapore; Dublin; Vancouver, B.C.; Saudi Arabia; and South Korea.

The ArtScience pilot program at Perpich engages students and teachers in in-depth learning in the arts, sciences and idea development to cultivate creativity and the ability to realize innovative project ideas generated in the classroom. Perpich will expand the program to schools throughout the state.

Perpich is a Minnesota State Agency serving K-12 teachers, administrators, schools and students throughout the state. Perpich sponsors arts and arts integration outreach, professional development, research, curriculum and standards development, a library and public arts high school to create innovations in teaching in and through the arts.

State officials have been invited to attend the presentation.