Some interesting articles/links from OR Arts Teacher Listserve

22. Study Helps Explain Why Music Is So Widely Popular Across Cultures
A study by Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University in Montreal shows that the release of dopamine is involved both in anticipating a particularly thrilling musical moment and in feeling the rush from it. In addition, researchers found that even the anticipation of listening to intensely pleasurable music was enough to trigger the release of dopamine. Dopamine is commonly associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities; it is also connected with the development of sociability. Volunteers in the study chose a wide range of music – from classical and jazz to punk, tango and even bagpipes –implying that the neural response to music is not associated with any particular type of music.

Articles about the research may be found at WebMD (http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20110109/music-gives-brain-natural-buzz) and MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40990339/ns/health-behavior/); the full text of the Nature Neuroscience article, with an abstract, is available at http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2726.html.

23. The Skills Connection between the Arts and 21st Century Learning
In an EdWeek commentary, Bruce Taylor (director of education for the Washington National Opera, in Washington, D.C.) argues that “the necessary skills to function in an increasingly complex, conceptual, and globalized 21st-century society and economy,” as well as the “so-called ‘habits of mind’ that will enable [students] to develop the skills of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving,” are “in reality, arts skills.” In addition, the arts relate to the unique ways in which human beings think, postulated in Scientific American by Marc Hauser at Harvard University as four “key characteristics of the human mind” that distinguish us from our nearest primate relative, the chimp. To focus on those characteristics – generative computation, promiscuous combination of ideas, mental symbols, and abstract thought – “is to enhance the very qualities that make us ... us. In other words, to be artistic is to be human.”

To read the EdWeek commentary by Bruce Taylor, go to http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/02/19taylor_ep.h30.html?tkn=RVXFqYjnTgKEXardREpTCBxCEBx7Ci%2Bz6sNH&cmp=clp-edweek; to read the Scientific American article by Marc Hauser, go to http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/mindSciAm.pdf

24. The Arts as Radical Ideas to Really Save Education
As part of an article in Fast Company Magazine (How to Spend $100 Million to Really Save Education), thirteen education experts were asked for a radical idea that they would spend $100 million on, to save education. Diane Ravitch’s response (Radical Idea #3) was, “I’d focus on the arts – music and visual arts and dance, all the things that make kids joyful. Kids need a reason to come to school, and testing is not a good reason.” To read the article, go to http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/152/how-to-spend-100-million-to-really-save-education.html.

25. Math Concepts and Art
Recent college graduate Vi Hart is making a name for herself as a recreational mathemusician, who is hoping to help students see math as an art. She seems to be attracting more teenage girls to the subject. Hart began posting on YouTube videos of herself doodling math concepts, which have since gone viral. “I want people to feel they can do this. People can. It’s mathematics that anyone can do,” she said.

To read an article about Vi Hart, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18prof.html?_r=4&ref=science; to see some of Ms. Harts videos, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/7/e4MSN6IImpI (doodling in math class), http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/6/CfJzrmS9UfY (drawing stars), http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/6/heKK95DAKms (drawing snakes), http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/2/Yhlv5Aeuo_k (prime numbers), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsE2UKkIKXU&feature=fvsr (hyperbolic planes and computational balloon twisting), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK5Z709J2eo (sums of infinite series).