Abstract
The Melbourne Zoo’s campaign for endangered species (Melbourne Zoos, n.d.), calls for the public to learn about and act on the plight of endangered species. In response to this campaign, researcher-educators designed, implemented and evaluated a sequence of lessons in which art (particularly drama) and science were enmeshed. This learning sequence was designed to support year 10 students from an all-girls school to: (1) learn about endangered species, (2) create puppets of these endangered species using recycled materials, (3) use these puppets in a small mobile ‘theatre in a suitcase’ performance so students could, (4) communicate the story and plight of their assigned endangered species to a young audience (primary and pre-school children, and their parents). This learning sequence is shared and discussed as a model of teaching and learning art and science education. In doing so, we discuss the power of metaphor that supports young people to connect with science through appreciating the natural world and its species as a ‘shared world’; a world with which they are deeply connected. We argue that these learning experiences offer students an opportunity to respond to environmental issues that when done in interdisciplinary and activist ways can potentially address ecological grief and anxiety issues. We share examples from our data analysis to show how the inclusion of arts with science provided opportunities for students to engage with materiality and embodied experiences as they created and ‘brought to life’ puppets as metaphorical beings in effective, affective and engaging ways.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, T. (2005). The puppet as a metaphor. In M. Bernier & J. O’Hare (Eds.), Puppetry in education and therapy: Unlocking doors to the mind and heart (pp. 5–12). AuthorHouse.
Albrecht, G. (2005). ‘Solastalgia’: A new concept in health and identity. Philosophy, Activism, Nature, 3, 41–55.
Amsen, E. (2019, June 14). Science educators are turning to the performing arts. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/evaamsen/2019/06/14/science-educators-are-turning-to-the-performing-arts/#4120abf737b1
Anderson, D. R. (1987). Creativity and the philosophy of C.S. Peirce. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Berger, C. (2019). Introduction. In C. Berger (Ed.), Conceptualism and materiality: Matters of art and politics (pp. 3–14). Brill.
Bernier, M. (2005). Introduction to puppetry in therapy. In M. Bernier & J. O’Hare (Eds.), Puppetry in education and therapy: Unlocking doors to the mind and heart (pp. 109–116). AuthorHouse.
Bradley, J. (2020, January 11). Terror, hope, anger, kindness: The complexity of life as we face the new normal. The Guardian: Australian Edition. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/11/terror-hope-anger-kindness-the-complexity-of-life-as-we-face-the-new-normal
Butler, J. (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso.
Cohen, M. (2007). Puppetry and the destruction of the object. Performance Research, 12(4), 123–131.
Cool, D., & Frost, S. (2010). Introducing the new materialisms. In D. Cool, S. Frost, B. Cheah, M. Orlie, & E. Grosz (Eds.), New materialisms: Ontology, agency and politics (pp. 1–43). Duke University Press.
Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281.
Ellis, N., & Cunsolo, A. (2018, April 5). Hope and mourning in the Anthropocene: Understanding ecological grief. The Conversation: Australian Edition. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/hope-and-mourning-in-the-anthropocene-understanding-ecological-grief-88630
Ferguson, J., Aranda, G., Tytler, R., & Gorur, R. (2019). Video research—Purposeful selection from rich data sets. In L. Xu, G. Aranda, & D. Clarke (Eds.), Video-based research in education—Cross-disciplinary perspectives (pp. 124–139). Routledge.
Gross, K. (2012). Puppet: An essay on uncanny life. University of Chicago Press.
Hasbach, P. H. (2015). Therapy in the face of climate change. Ecopsychology, 7(4), 205–210.
Hausman, C. R. (1989). Metaphor and art. Pennsylvania State University.
Head, L. (2016). Hope and grief in the Anthropocene: Re-conceptualising human-nature relations. Routledge.
Hickman, C. (2019, September 15). I’m a psychotherapist–Here’s what I’ve learned from children talking about climate change. The Conversation: Australian Edition. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/im-a-psychotherapist-heres-what-ive-learned-from-listening-to-children-talk-about-climate-change-123183
John and Carol (2011). Figures of speech puppet as metaphoric being [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZfBROpj8_w (note: the full names for the puppeteers are not available on any internet or library searches)
Jensen, G. (2006). Metaphors as a bridge to understanding educational and social contexts. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 1–19.
Kemmis, S. (2019). A practice sensibility: An invitation to the theory of practice architectures. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1986). Laboratory life–The construction of scientific facts. Princeton University Press.
Lemke, J. (2015). Feeling and Meaning: a unitary biosemiotics account. In Trifonas, P. (Ed.), International handbook of semiotics. Springer.
Mannix, L. (2020, January 8). ‘Many, many billions’ of animals feared to have dead in bushfires. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/many-many-billions-of-animals-feared-to-have-died-in-bushfires-20200108-p53pvk.html
Matthews, J. (1998). Somatic knowing and art education. Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education, 10(1), 89–94.
Melbourne Zoos. (n.d). Fighting extinction: Priority native threatened species. Retrieved from: https://www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction/priority-native-threatened-species
Mello, A. (2016). Trans-embodiment. Performance Research, 21(5), 49–58.
Molnar, D. (2020, May 5). Climate grief and embracing beautiful confusion: Daniela Molnar interviewed. Retrieved from https://variablewest.com/2020/11/26/interview-daniela-molnar/.
O’Hare, J. (2005). Introduction to puppetry in education. In M. Bernier & J. O’Hare (Eds.), Puppetry in education and therapy: Unlocking doors to the mind and heart (pp. 1–4).
Oar, E., & Taylor, M. (2020, January 9). Eco-anxiety climbs as fires, smoke and animal deaths trigger fear and trauma. The Lighthouse. Retrieved from https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/january-2020/eco-anxiety-climbs-as-fires,-smoke-and-animal-deaths-trigger-fear-and-trauma
Rosen, J. (2020, January 11). An artist set out to paint climate change. She ended up on a journey through grief. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/la-sci-col1-climate-change-art-2019-story.html
Simon, S., Naylor, S., Keogh, B., Maloney, J., & Downing, B. (2008). Puppets promoting engagement and talk in science. International Journal of Science Education, 30(9), 1229–1248.
Sontag, S. (1966). One culture and the new sensibility. In Against Interpretation (pp. 293–304). Octagon Books.
The Climate Museum. (2020, May 5). Retrieved from climatemuseum.org.
Trommer-Beardslee, H., Dasen, A., Pangle, W., & Batzner, J. (2019). Team Hyena Puppet: An interdisciplinary approach to making and teaching science through art. Teaching Artist Journal, 17(1–2), 45–50.
Vince, G. (2020, January 13). How scientists are coping with ‘ecological grief’. The Guardian: Australian Edition. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/12/how-scientists-are-coping-with-environmental-grief
Wegner, E. & Nuckles, M. (2015). Knowledge acquisition or participation in communities of practice? Academics’ metaphors of teaching and learning at the university. Studies in Higher Education, 40(4), 624–643.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hannigan, S., Ferguson, J. (2021). Art-Science Education in the Anthropocene: Embodied Metaphor with Puppets and Performance. In: White, P.J., Raphael, J., van Cuylenburg, K. (eds) Science and Drama: Contemporary and Creative Approaches to Teaching and Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84401-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84401-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84400-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84401-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)