Beginning today, the IDEAS/Mosaic Balcony Gallery is home to some life-sized musical instruments: people! Mosaic Voice Seminar students recently completed their study of how the parts of the human body must function together to make quality sound. Through singing, students practice and learn how their voices sound. Through understanding where crucial points in the body are and how they work, students learn to sound better. With a kind of “kinesthetic memory” they balance their instruments, just as one might balance fingerings and bow strokes on a cello or embouchure and air to play a clarinet.
As with all the Thinking Galleries at The Mosaic School and IDEAS Academy, the goal is to make learning visible. The process of thinking that students experience while they learn is what we treasure most. Understanding how they arrive at their conclusions, through trial, research, error, collaboration and reflection, is what students will grow to carry forward into lifelong learning.
Along with diagrams of the body as instrument, an explanation of the concept being taught in Voice is included with the exhibit. Samples from student learning journals are appear with each diagram to capture the entire project process for students and visitors.
Current Thinking Galleries are open to our guests at tonight’s Mosaic Info Night and during future public and parent events. The Thinking Galleries now display math, science, engineering and visual art. They will continue to change as new learning happens. Throughout the day, classes and individuals can share their learning and practice their thinking (and singing). The best part is hearing students talk to each other about what’s going on here?
