How Science Benefits Your Community. Freshmen in the BHA and BSA program will work with fifth graders from Cardinal Wright Regional School on Pittsburgh's North Side to create visual and performing works of art. They ll collaborate on campus and at the elementary school to allow all participants to experience working in a new and different cultural environment. Each group of students will use Carnegie Mellon's video-probe microscope to help them create a visual artwork or a performance art piece. When a user touches an item with the lens, the scope instantly illuminates and magnifies the item, then projects the image onto a monitor.
Different lenses enable the user to increase or decrease the magnification.
Introducing children to the visual wonders of microscopy will nurture an understanding that both art and science share similar goals in seeking to increase levels of observation, awareness and perception, Maurides said. The students' explorations and creations are being videotaped and documented in writing, and will later be showcased on a project Web site. The results of their collaborations will also be featured on International Public Science Day next spring at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, where the project will be a prototype for a future permanent exhibit.