SPARKS, CURRENTS, CIRCUITS & FLOW

SPARKS, CURRENTS, CIRCUITS & FLOW curiosity in the 5-6 year olds’ ATELIER

I have a very good mind for this ELECTRICITY Eliška (age 5)

I did it! I made two. Look, here is rainbow light!

Max (age 5)

SPARKS

/ to spark an idea: set in motion, provoke, precipitate, set running, animate, excite, start

I was working with Electricity. Next time when we come I’m going to work more with ELECTRICITY. Eliška (age 5)

At the beginning of the year the Atelier is yet to meet its children. What materials and ideas could spark their curiosity?

On the long shelf by the window The Collection is waiting - an archive of objects, discoveries and remnants of previous projects, assembled with an eye for beauty and connection. This year several parts from old electronics are included - motherboards, discs, wires, alongside volcanic glass, lava, pieces of mirror, black smooth stones, a purple beetle, tiny white shells. Eliška, Marlene, Richard and Haun become fascinated with the motherboards. Spotlights, magnifiers and a digital microscope amplify their inquiring eyes and as they enter into the intricate world of electronics, momentary sparks set new currents running.

CURRENTS

/ electrical current: the flow of particles through a conductive material or space

I found a map! Marlene (age 5) There used to be some electricity people inside. Haun (age 5) Let’s find more...Maja (age 5)

The desire to work with ‘ELECTRICITY’ spreads and two clear currents develop. Children spend purposeful time deconstucting old electronics with screwdrivers and pliers, revealing layers and micro details of complex design. At the same time they want to assemble electrical parts, connect components, make electricity visible. Ordinary household materials - cardboard, silver foil,

It’s working! By myself! Can I make two, can I stick it together? I will do more, more, more and make so much light here! Max (age 5) paper-clips, LEDs and batteries turn out to be the most intriguing:

Diagrams of littleBits circuits: Eliška, Richard

CIRCUITS

/ electrical circuit: paths for transmitting electric current, or moving electricity

This is working - the electricity is coming here. And this light is working - but here it is skipping. I can feel the electricity on this fan. The electricity is stuck…Yi Yi (age 5)

Working with real world materials in collaborative groups, curiosity and competence grow together. We observe each other’s experiments, borrow, adapt, question, connect. Complex circuits of meaning are built, with significant pathways and meeting points. Many children are fascinated by multiplication. Platon makes a circuit with three bulbs instead of one and is delighted when it works. As other children add even more, Platon wonders about taking away. He replaces the wires with metal forks and tries to solve the puzzle of why these don’t work. Learning passes between us, a little like electrons travelling through connected wires. What could it mean to keep thinking about our collective creativity in this electrical way?

Drawing: ‘Electricity wires’ Sofie

FLOW

/ synonyms (verb): circulate, progress, travel, stream, emerge, arise, cascade / synonyms (noun): immersion, absorbtion, purpose, focus, happiness, contentment, ease

As we introduce different kinds of ELECTRICITY, flow becomes a powerful experience and idea. It describes the way children carry their ideas from one encounter to another, how they build fluency in a language of experimentation and design. Flow also characterises our most satisfying learning state - in which difficulty, fascination and a kind of ease are beautifully balanced. In flow there are surprises too, and new realisations.

When I ask Lukas to help three of his friends with their LED circuits, using his knowledge from the day before, I expect to hear instructions. But Lukas looks carefully at his own work and a different conversation begins:

I love my light. Lukas I love electricity! Stella So do I. Jeongha It makes things go, like trams, and it lights up things.

Stella

And it makes rainbows - like this light. I love my drawing and my light. Lukas Why do you draw hearts so much? Ms Wilenski Because they are FULL of love! Stella

‘Illuminated drawings’: Jeongha, Amina, Enni

I did not expect this language of electrical love, and yet it belongs right here. Our sparks, currents, circuits and flow start from somewhere powerful, and it seems that love could be a source of our research. The Atelier has always been a place of cross -connections where languages can meet and mix. The children seem to be telling us that their dual languages of love and electricity can show us where to go next.

‘We must go beyond materials and techniques to stop and look at processes of empathy and intense relations with things which the atelier promotes, to think how atelieristas are capable of proposing themselves as guarantors of the fact that an expressive, emotional part as well as a rational, cognitive part will always be present in every discipline, or language.’

Vea Vecchi, Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia