Students and Science and Zebras…
Oh My!

If you’ve visited the CAT Museum before, you might know that we have a 25-person maximum for gallery tours. So how did we manage to engage the entire third grade at Island Lake Elementary with our last exhibition, Fooling the Eye? Simple: we brought the museum to them! Our Director of Education and Community Engagement, Laura Steefel-Moore, made seven visits to the school, creating an “in-house field trip” experience for each of Mrs. Gentry’s STEAM classes, ultimately serving all of the school’s 180 third-graders. STEAM—an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math—was the perfect framework with which to study Fooling the Eye.

The 55-minute classroom lesson began with a map showing the CAT Museum in relation to Island Lake Elementary. Many students were surprised to discover they have a world-class art museum only eight minutes away from their school. They were especially delighted to learn that they could visit the museum for free with their families.

Students saw photos of the CAT Museum’s exterior and interior spaces, visually entering the building as though arriving on a field trip. They viewed installation shots of Fooling the Eye and discussed why the museum’s curator might have chosen that title for the exhibition. After looking at some fun and tricky optical illusions, students were introduced to the brain science behind them.

Then it was time to talk about art! As a group, we analyzed two of Victor Vasarely’s large Op Art paintings, engaging in close looking and reflection with each. Students eagerly shared their observations and descriptions, even creating sounds and dance movements that helped bring each abstract artwork to life.

The third-graders were next asked to come up with several hypotheses about why zebras have stripes. They learned about new scientific research suggesting the black-and-white patterns on zebra coats may serve as optical illusions to disorient flies. We discussed how scientists tested that hypothesis by putting black-and-white patterned coats on horses and observing fly behavior.

Finally, the students had the opportunity to create their own optical artworks. Using different types of black-and-white-striped paper and the concepts they studied in Vasarely’s work, they were tasked with creating the most dazzling zebra-inspired illusions they possibly could.

We think they did a fantastic job: their final creations certainly fool our eyes! It was wonderful to share our exhibition with such curious and creative students. We look forward to future collaborations with Island Lake and many other schools in our community.

For more on School Programs at the CAT Museum, visit us online HERE.