The main focus that Jonah Lehrer has is the implementation of art in the sciences. His argument centers the idea that the educational system should be recreated to incorporate art in the subjects. He even has examples that help him in supporting his argument. His ideas are to change the current STEM model in education to the STEAM model, the A being Art. He states in his article that there are often unanswered questions in science, and with the help of art it could reveal more answers. I noticed that Lehrer tied emotions into his explanation of the effectiveness of art. There are lots of emotions that can be revealed with incorporating art, and this is a very beneficial idea that can tie into the sciences and elaborative thinking. This would open up and allow a student to focus on the bigger picture while still staying with the main idea of study. He mentions that the skills that come from art- collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination, allow a student to be successful in the sciences. The way the author incorporated these two subjects together made me think about the benefit students could have if the educational model was changed. His idea about creating a culture that derives from both science and art, gives way to a successful future a student could have if this idea was implemented in the educational setting. All professions could benefit from this change, as student’s would have the skills needed to conquer complex tasks in their jobs.

Glossing the text

Heisenberg uncertainty principle: any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables such as position x and momentum p, can be known

Bridging principle: How a pair of concepts are connected but also focused on separately, containing similarities and differences between the two

Reductionism: the practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of phenomena that are held to represent a simpler or more fundamental level, especially when this is said to provide a sufficient explanation

Synapse: a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter.

Epiphenomenon: a secondary effect or byproduct that arises from but does not causally influence a process, in particular

Holistic perspective: a perspective in which many different factors are taken into account to generate a picture of the culture as a whole

Metaphor: a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract

Bolster: support or strengthen; prop up

Qualia: the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions, arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena

I chose to look up Richard Feynman and Virginia Woolf. Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist who formed the quantum mechanics and composed multiple scientific theories as well. Richard Feynman was was of value to research, because his statement in Lehrer’s article was that science has more beneath the eyes, if focused on. He supports the idea that if we have art in science, we are able to focus on the bigger picture instead of the little things. This would build on our understanding of the sciences. Lastly, the second contributor that I researched was Virginia Woolf. She was an English writer recognized as being a powerful writer in the 20th century. She focused on the idea of consciousness and incorporated her ideas in her writing. She was very modern, and her influence can reflect on the idea of combining both the sciences and arts together as one and bringing out the consciousness in education.