This was the third Investigation of the LabLearner CELL Science and Art. In it, students continue the exploration of perspective and the illusion of depth in paintings. In addition, students will study the use of different perspectives and points of view in paintings.

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A. Begin this part of the Investigation by encouraging students to summarize their activities in the Lab. Prompt student discussion by posing the following questions:

1. Ask students: What were the main questions we wanted to investigate in this lab? Students should indicate that the questions were: How does your perspective affect the appearance of an object? How does each beaker appear from your perspective?

2. Ask students: How would you summarize the types of experiments that you performed to investigate this question? Students should indicate that they performed two Trials. In both Trials, they set up an x and y-axis on the lab table. They placed three beakers at specific x and y coordinates on the table. Each student in the group sat at one of the four sides of the table and drew the three beakers. Students then rotated clockwise around the table, drawing the beakers from each point of view.

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B. Begin the analysis of the experiment by encouraging students to review and organize their data from Trial 1.

1. Tell students to assemble into their lab groups and take out the drawings they did in the lab. Encourage students to compare their drawings of the beakers from position 1 with the drawings of position 1 from other students.

2. Explain that as students compare their drawings of the beakers at position 1, they should discuss the following questions within their group:

a. Which beaker is in the front, back, and middle of the paper?

b. Which beaker is in the middle, right, and left of the drawing?

c. How big are the beakers? Are they the same size? Which are taller or shorter than the others? Which are wider or more narrow than the other?

3. Once students have compared their drawings, ask them: Did each of you give the same answers for all of the questions? Students should indicate that they did not give the same answers for the questions. For example, one student may indicate that in position 1, the yellow beaker was in the front right, the blue in the middle back, and the red in the left halfway back.  The yellow beaker was the largest, the blue the smallest and the red a size in between the two.  A second student may indicate that the blue beaker in the middle front, the yellow beaker in the left back and the red beaker on the right halfway between the blue and yellow beakers.

4. Select one student to describe the drawing of his/her beaker and show the drawing to the class. Ask students: Does anyone else have a drawing from Position 1 that matches this?  Students should realize that at least one person in each group and maybe one other person within their own group will have a drawing similar to theirs.  Students whose position 1 drawings were the same all started at the same position at the lab table.  In other words, all of these students had the same point of view or perspective.

a. Look at the Trial 1 Position 1 representation on this slide.  Ask if this representation matches the description given by the student. The student’s drawing may or may not match the drawing on the slide depending upon his/her starting position. At least one-quarter of the class should have a drawing for Position 1 that matches this drawing.

b. Ask students: How many have a drawing labeled position 1 that does NOT look like this? Student answers may vary depending on their starting positions at the lab table. At least half to three-fourths of the class should have a drawing that does not match this drawing.

• Ask students: How are your drawings the same? Students should indicate that all of the drawings included three beakers of different colors: red, blue, and yellow.  The drawings all included beakers that could be described using the terms left, right, middle, front, and back.

• Ask students: How are your drawings different? Students should indicate that the location of the different colored beakers was not the same in each drawing.  In addition, the size of the beakers was not the same in all of the drawings.  For example, one student may indicate that in position 1, the yellow beaker was in the front right, the blue in the middle back and the red in the left halfway back.  The yellow beaker was the largest, the blue the smallest and the red a size in between the two.  A second student may indicate that the blue beaker in the middle front, the yellow beaker in the left back and the red beaker on the right halfway between the blue and yellow beaker.

c. Ask students: Does anyone else have a picture that looks like this?  Which position is it labeled in your drawing? Students should all indicate that they have a drawing that looks like this slide. Students may have labeled it positions 2, 3, or 4 depending upon when in their rotation they observed the beakers from that point of view.

d. Ask students: Why do we all have a drawing that looks the same but may be labeled with a different position? Students should indicate that they all viewed the beakers from that particular point of view or perspective at some time during their rotation around the lab table.  However, since they all started at different places at the lab table for the trial, the way the beakers appeared in this drawing may not have been in “position 1” for their rotation.

e. Repeat the above steps for Positions 2, 3, and 4 for Trial 1.  Use the following three slides during the discussion.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 2 of Trial 1.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 3 of Trial 1.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 4 of Trial 1.

g. Once students have compared the drawings from all of the positions, compare drawings for Positions 2, 3, and 4 for Trial 1.

Ask students: How did your perspective affect how you described the color and size of the beakers? Sitting at different positions around the table resulted in a different point of view or perspective.  When observing the beakers, this meant that different beakers were in the center, right and left of my field of view at each of the four locations around the table.  It also meant that different beakers were different distances from my eyes (front, middle, back) at each of the four locations around the table.  The closer the beakers were to my eyes from a particular point of view, the larger they appeared. The farther the beakers were to my eyes from a particular point of view, the smaller they appeared.

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5. Begin to analyze the results from Trial 2. 

Ask students: Do you think we will make similar observations about the drawings in Trial 2?  Why?

6. Explain that in analyzing Trial 2, you’d like to play a game with students.

a. Refer to the illustration on this slide.  Remind students that this is how their lab table appears during the lab.

b. Tell students you will show them a drawing of the beakers on the following slides. When a drawing is shown, they need to:

• Raise their hands if they have a drawing that matches.

• Indicate, using the terms from the drawing of the lab table on the board, their position at the lab table when the drawing was made. In other words, was their point of view (perspective) from the x-axis, the y-axis, side A, or side B? 

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This slide shows a representation of Position 1 of Trial 2.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 2 of Trial 2.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 3 of Trial 2.

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This slide shows a representation of Position 4 of Trial 2.

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• The directions for Trials 1 and 2 indicated that beakers were to be placed at specific x and y coordinates on the lab table. Ask students: Why do you think x and y coordinates were used instead of the directions of “right,” “left,” and “middle?” Students should indicate that the description of left, right, middle, front, and back are relative to their location or point of view. As their point of view around the table changed, the beakers in the positions of right, left, middle, etc. also changed.  However, the x and y axis were labeled and these axes remained the same when rotating around the table.  Therefore, each beaker’s x and y coordinates were the same regardless of where a person sat at the table.

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7. End this portion of the analysis by discussing how artists use different perspectives or points of view. Show students the following slides. Students will have the opportunity to describe objects from different points of view as well as view paintings from artists portrayed from different perspectives.

This slide shows two paintings of the same structure – the interior of the church at St. Bavo – by the same artist (Pieter Jansz Saenradam).  One was painted in 1630, the other in 1660.  Although both are of the same structure, the artist’s perspective or point of view are distinctly different. 

Ask students to discuss the differences they see and the point of view of the artist in each one.

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This is a third view by the same artist of the same church. Encourage students to compare this painting to the two previous perspectives. 

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Ask students the questions below. Provide time for students to discuss their answers.  Accept all reasonable answers and encourage students to consider objects and people in the painting as well as the size of those objects.

Ask students: How would the painting appear if the artist stood next to the little girl in the white dress, looking toward us?

Ask students: How would the painting appear if the artist stood next to the couple on the right front, looking straight ahead?

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Examine this painting by Anne Vallayer-Coster.

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C. Conclude the PostLab by inviting students to think about how what they’ve learned about perspective thus far can be applied not only to art but also to science.

1. Tell students to imagine the following: A student, Marty, places a wood block on a table. He attaches a spring scale to the block and pulls the block from one end of the table to the other. 

Ask students: What do you think Marty was studying? Student answers may vary.

2. Explain that while Marty was pulling the block along the table, another student, Sarah, was timing how long it took to move from one end of the table to the other.

Ask students: What do you think Sarah was measuring? Student answers may vary.

3. Continue by telling students to imagine that the procedure was done again; this time, Debra, a third student, placed a sensor on the bottom of the block.  After the block was slid across the table, Debra obtained information from the sensor about the heat produced as the block slid across the table.

4. Discuss with students that each of the descriptions above is part of an experiment that was carried out. Yet the perspectives of the three students studying the event differed. Marty was focused on the force of friction, Sarah on the velocity of the block, and Debra on the heat produced by friction.