ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
TO THE STUDENTS and featury approach stuff in upper and lower goes right through here.
Jeremy Williams' "mind" resembles junk - a collection of clutter that could pass for a piece of modern sculpture.
Indeed, his box-like creation is art, but there is meaning in the jumble of tubes, Coke bottle, old cap, wire and other stuff, said Williams, a William Fleming High School student. "It is supposed to represent my thought process - how I receive information and what I do with it."
Williams' model, created for a "Theory of Knowledge" course in the school's International Baccalaureate program, depicts the two halves of his brain: the left brain, which operates by logic and reason, and the right brain, the source of artistic and creative impulses.
If you drop a small bead into the top, he said, it can roll down the left or right side. That's the way that a mind functions. The model is a sorting system so that the beads, like thoughts, can roll into different places.
Teacher Katrina Landon assigned her students to prepare a display or model that would help explain how their minds work. She borrowed the idea from a sculptor who used a similar approach in his art.
"They were free to come up with anything they wanted to," Landon said. "The objective was to make them think about the way they think."
Another student, Tiffany Puryear, used a bottle of sand art to represent her mental process. The different-colored granules represent the mind's perceptions, but the sand is the same, she said.
The sand disintegrates when she rubs it between her fingers and colors her hands, Puryear said. "What is left is the coloring on my hands, and I can choose what I do with it: I can make a handprint or a smear. That's the way my thoughts work."
Jeremy Baldwin created a board game that uses nails, holes and rubber bands. Up to six players assume different roles in the game, which is based on elements in the thought process: random intuition, misguided intuition, distraction, forgetfulness and others.
Alisa Tyree created a model in which water, representing thoughts and perceptions, flows through tubes and a sponge in a filtering process. What comes out at the end is the completed thought, she said.
The students said they found "Theory of Knowledge" intellectually challenging and fun, even though they have to get up early for its 7:30 a.m. start. The course explores the relationship among all disciplines and requires the students to engage in critical thinking.
"It attempts to help you understand how you learn - and why you learn - and then to synthesize what you have learned," Williams said.
"This class makes me think and sometimes I wonder why I get up so early for it," said Puryear. "But I find it interesting. Sometimes I think about what I would have missed if I had quit it."
The course deals with aesthetics, history, logic, mathematics, perceptions, the sciences and other topics. The students have a heavy dose of writing and reading, including Plato and Eastern religion such as Zen Buddhism. They write 1,200-word essays frequently.
The International Baccalaureate program is a rigorous academic course with international standards of excellence for college-bound students. William Fleming is one of only three high schools in Western Virginia with such a program. It began unofficially at Fleming last year. This is the first year at full strength.
Besides the Theory of Knowledge class, the students are required to take courses in other fields, including English, math, history, biology, French or Spanish and art/design. The classes are small and are specifically designed for students in the program. They must also write a 4,000-word essay and complete 200 hours of community service.
The final examinations in the senior year last about 25 hours over a two-week period. College and university professors give the oral examinations and grade the written tests.
Several students in the Theory of Knowledge class said they were attracted to the International Baccalaureate program because they thought it would help them gain admission to college and it offered the opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school. But they also have found it to be intellectually challenging.
"I guess it's fun to think," said Tyree. "Other classes don't require you to think as much."
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL Staff Told to create representations thatby CNBhelp explain how their minds work, students (left to right) Tiffany
Puryear, Alisa Tyree, Jeremy Williams and Jeremy Baldwin came up
with these works.|