A&EDiversions Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 Page 4
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Sculpture students create work of art
463*)7736 6=3-',- 79>9/- 6-+,8 %2( 7):)2 advanced sculpture students created the the installation project “Vertical Experiment,� above. The project consists of several hundred wooden sticks hanging from panels and is on display in the Chase Fine Arts Building. SAMANTHA BEHL photo
BY KIEL REID staff writer
What do sculptors do when they get together on the weekends? They talk about sculpting, and it was from one of these casual gatherings that Ryoichi Suzuki, assistant professor of sculpture for the Caine College of the Arts, and seven of his advanced sculp-� ture students came up with their idea for an installation project. What started out as an idea to create something,
turned into a huge project that took almost 320 man hours to create. The instal-� lation itself consists of indi-� vidual four foot by four foot panels suspended from the ceiling, 10 and a half feet off the ground, with 100 individual wooden sticks hanging from each panel. The sticks have been cut to varied lengths, ranging from two to seven feet tall and hung in a progressing pattern — from shortest to tallest — and have been spaced two inches apart. The installation has been
designed to make full use of the gallery it will hang in, allowing visitors to walk about the piece and experi-� ence it from different angles and see how light passes in between the mass of hang-� ing sticks. “You get the effect like when you’re driving past a corn field and it changes as you go,� said Myles Howell, a senior majoring in art. The piece has been named “Vertical Experiment� because of the unpredict-� ability of the piece as a whole.
“Until we hang all of them we are guessing,� Suzuki said. “We can see, with them individually hang-� ing, but with this design we don’t know until we hang the whole thing if it will work.� Every aspect of the piece has been an experiment for Suzuki and his students. At one point, when trying to decide what materials to use, they considered using curled metal shavings. However, wood won out in
See WOOD, Page 5
Preschool on campus proves positive BY HAILEE HOUSLEY staff writer
The Adele and Dale Young Child Development Laboratory is providing an educational experience for young children so they can explore, be cre-� ative and not just look for praise. The preschool stays up to date with all the newest research. They create activities for the chil-� dren to cultivate things like creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills. “Some of our philosophies that we use is that children learn through play and they learn through explora-� tion,� said Camille Gilbert, a graduate student majoring in family, consumer and human development with an emphasis in early childhood. “So in our preschool we don’t provide models for them. Like in art, we don’t say, ‘Ok here, make this,’ we just provide mate-� rials and then let them explore and cre-� ate.� Gilbert said allowing the kids to play and explore helps them become more creative and better critical thinkers while at the same time helping their problem solving skills. “Creativity is big,� Gilbert said. “We try to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills, so we just try to provide activities that help the children learn these, but also the other part of it is I’m teaching a teacher how to set up those activities, so it is kind of like a two fold.� Teachers are trained on proper meth-� ods for communicating with children. “We teach them how to have good, appropriate language with the chil-� dren,� Gilbert said. “We ask lots of questions. We try to not say good job. Like sometimes when I say good job to a child, it kind of just ends there, so they think that they’re finished. It kind of stops the child’s creativity. It stops what they are doing, so instead of that, as teachers we try to ask questions like, ‘So what are you doing?’ so they can
Mobile pet care service prospers BY MADISEN MILLER staff writer
here and they are really focusing on those children’s needs, and what they are going to be interested in in their learning. We can support that and keep them engaged in building their knowl-� edge.� Because the lab is training student teachers, they have rooms with two-� way mirrors which allow the director and assistant directors to observe each class. The mirror allows the directors to point out to the student teachers things that could have been overlooked in the typical classroom environment. “We can point out things, even silly little things,� Olsen said. “Like you know the children need to wash their hands after they wipe their nose. We catch that. Sometimes when you are in the classroom, just the intensity of everything that is going on, it’s hard to remember. It’s hard to remember everything that you are supposed to do.�
When asking a college student what their five-� year plan entails, one might hear about graduat-� ing, applying to graduate school and finding employment in a certain field. But Shawn Nielsen, a senior in interdisciplinary studies, is following a road less taken. Nielsen launched a business last June with his wife Alyssa. Alyssa is the business executive and Shawn is the self-�proclaimed CFO. Their enter-� prise: mobile pet grooming. “‘Alyssa’s Doggie Do’s’ is the first of its kind in Cache Valley,� Alyssa said. “I drive in front of people’s homes and pick up their dog from the front step, groom them and about an hour later drop them off.� Alyssa first became interested in starting her own mobile pet salon when she realized the demand for grooming services. “I went to pet grooming school in Colorado Springs and they were everywhere over there,� she said. “There were 38 different pet mobile grooming businesses in the area and they were all booked solid. There were none here in Logan.� Alyssa said the greatest difficulty of a new business venture is finding a customer base. “The demand is there. The market is just hard to break into, especially here in Cache Valley,� she said. “People do what they always have done. It’s not until someone hears that your product works, and then it catches on pretty quick.� In the beginning, the couple didn’t have the assets to start the company. Shawn said he bought a dilapidated brown trailer through KSL and with the help of relatives and friends per-� formed extensive renovation on it. He received construction help with the trailer from Andrew Hastings, one of Shawn’s close friends and a junior majoring in business administration. “We had to put in a lot of sweat equity, espe-� cially in building the trailer,� Hastings said. “We had to rip out the original framing, rewire the whole thing, put insulation in and install new
See DEVELOPMENT, Page 6
See GROOMING, Page 5
8,) %()0) %2( (%0) =392+ Child Development Laboratory provides a unique educational opportunity for the children who attend and the student teachers involved. SAMANTHA BEHL photo
talk about it but keep going if they have other ideas.� The student teachers are being trained while they teach the preschool-� ers. “We train teachers how to have posi-� tive interactions,� Gilbert said. “It is not just like them watching, it’s like them helping the children explore. It’s not just a bunch of children playing with the teacher. It’s like they’re there to help the kids learn the best way.� Student teachers can have a big influ-� ence on the kids and are encouraged to take advantage of teaching opportuni-� ties. “When we are working with the teachers we want them to understand how powerful they are in the class-� room, how much influence they have over the children, and we want them to make sure that they get every opportu-� nity that they can to help the children develop,� said lab director Kaelin Olsen. “We want them to avoid missed opportunities so that they are really