Science Thinking

In a recent Design Matters podcast, Debbie Millman talks with Doug Powell about using the skills learned in a design education beyond the confines of design. Designers, like John Maeda at Kleiner Perkins, are taking on new leadership roles that extend their skills and value. 

I've heard people talking about design thinking for a while now. I've even seen Tom Kelley speak about it. But, for some reason, this time I was struck by how similar this sentiment is to my feelings about an education rooted in science. 

A lot of the allure of design thinking, or approaching a problem as a designer, is the ability to bring creative problem solving skills and approach problems in new, creative ways. I feel that this is very similar to the way I approach problems as a scientist. 

While science is sometimes characterized as rigid, I found the opposite. It requires the ability to approach open, ambiguous challenges with a mix of creativity, imagination, rational thinking and critical reasoning. It encourages its practitioners to ask questions and then actively explore them. It requires them to hold themselves to rigorous standards, to always be open to new ideas and concepts, and to accept that they may never know but keep exploring anyway. 

This is the thinking that I attempt to cultivate when tutoring math and science. In the long run, it is not that important if a particular student remembers how to take an integral or the equation for Newton's law of gravity... they can always look it up. What is important is what I believe is the true value of a science education: Being able to tackle challenges with confidence and possessing a set of tools to start making progress.

I don't mean to bash on design thinking, I think it is incredibly valuable. I am just putting forth that scientific thinking can accomplish many of the same results. Yet, so much of the push for STEM education is so that there are more scientists and engineers in our country. I disagree, scientists and engineers are awesome, but what we really need is more science minded people who can approach ambiguous problems with logic and creativity. 

Flow Field Drawing

Today I started playing with using flow fields to create drawings. Parameters can be tweaked to get some very different results, and the ability to change the flow field at any time adds some human influence. Video and picture gallery below.

Tumblr

I've been working on a few projects recently, including some motion controlled sculpture ideas, but haven't posted anything here in a while. I'm finding it much easier to upload videos and little snapshots of my projects to tumblr, so that's where they are now!

http://caseybloomquist.tumblr.com/

Photo Blending

A little photography and Processing project. I took a photograph every 10 steps while walking down the Williamsburg bridge. Then I blended them together using Processing. It took me a while to get the effect I wanted with the right timing and multiple images combined at once. But with a lot tinkering and struggling I was able to come up with a nice, clean method. I'd like to do a longer one over the whole bridge, and maybe others in different locations.

Enjoyment and Learning

"That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes."

Albert Einstein in a letter to his son

Some might call what Einstein is referring to here the 'flow' state, but I think it is more along the lines of simply being engaged. Being engaged and active in the thing that you are doing will lead to better learning outcomes. 

I've written before about creating joy, but this quotation inspires me to harvest joy in my life. To seek and find those things that give me the sense of enjoyment so that I can learn more. I get a lot of pleasure out of learning new things, which creates interesting feedback loop of enjoyment, learning, more enjoyment, more learning etc. 

Lastly, this quotation reminds me that, if I am not enjoying something, I am probably not learning much. Though there are things I must do and learn for various reasons, there had better be a good reason for me to learn something that is not enjoyable. Also, it inspires me to keep the balance of things I do tipped towards the enjoyable side because I don't want to miss out on chances to learn more.