DISCOVER Projects--

Both art and science are creative ways of knowing the world and representing what we know. They teach us how to explore and analyze what we are seeing; how to search life for meaning, as well as create meaning through our searches; how to communicate our personal knowledge and express ourselves; and how to appreciate the depth and reach of our imaginations. Both stimulate creativity and innovation. Both foster openness and skepticism. Both have formed the foundations of knowledge. Since the beginning of humankind, artistic and scientific thinking have shaped our individual lives and forged our collective future.

Central to The ArtScience Program is integrative thinking. This process of thinking not only connects and relates diverse information and ideas, it also transforms them - creating new meanings and usages. To this end, the Program engages all of our senses, intelligences, and common sense. It exercises both creative and critical thinking, helping learners understand how to apply their knowledge more effectively to enrich all aspects of their lives, and to achieve their dreams.

A key goal of the Program is to explore the possibilities of "connectivity" - the idea that all things can potentially be connected to increase their meaning and usefulness. The ArtScience Program guides learners in examining the natural connections and relationships among various subjects and fields of knowledge: from architecture to zoology. It demonstrates how different sources and forms of knowledge can be linked in original and productive ways - ways that generate inventions, innovations and creative solutions.

This experiential program helps learners manage the rapidly growing specialized information that adds to the complexity of our lives. It helps us construct a more coherent reality, by putting together the pieces of disconnected, disassociated information that leave our minds and lives fragmented. It frees our minds to simplify our lives, to see the simple in the complex, and to see the bigger picture.

Through the ArtScience Program, students, teachers and parents will have a chance to explore the possibilities of creativity and innovative thinking. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in collaborative learning, as they discover together - and demonstrate for one another - what creativity and learning mean to them. Teachers will also test the methodology of the Program to determine how effectively students use the information they're taught in class to enrich their lives.

The Program makes it plainly evident why and how creativity enables us to live the richest lives imaginable. This realization only unfolds when people directly experience and explore their creativity in personally meaningful ways. The Program guides people in this process of self-discovery. It encourages students and teachers to freely apply their creativity to improve communication, to share their personal knowledge, and to stimulate breakthrough thinking.

The Program was established to train teachers and students in applying the ArtScience methodology to the core curriculum, as well as cultivating their passions and interests. The teachers are guided to adapt the Program to their classrooms, incorporating it into their approaches to teaching curricular content. Based on the National Standards in Science, Mathematics, Arts and Humanities, the ArtScience Program aims at developing the core competencies in students so that they become productive, responsible citizens contributing to a civil society.

In the school of life, we are all students and teachers. In this timeless school, we have to apply the things we learn, know and imagine in order to not only survive, but also flourish. The ArtScience Program is designed to enrich our experiences of this school, which has a unique grading system: personal success.

Albert Einstein once remarked: "Many of the things you can count, don't count. And many of the things you can't count, really count." Creativity is one of those things you can't count that really counts…for growing lives, for expanding minds, for making people's dreams come true!

The Metaphorming process and tools, which serve as the engine of creativity and learning for The ArtScience Program, power our personal growth. They're "genius tools" that enable learners of all ages to think, create, and perform at our highest level to achieve one's goals and realize one's potential.

The riches of our future - the treasures of human potential - are hidden in the fact that all fields of knowledge are intimately connected. The ArtScience Program uncovers and builds on this fact, drawing inspiration from the quests and inventions of art, science, technology and education.