Chemistry of Place and Culture Report
The goal of my Collaborative supported work was to design a new section of the FYP: Finding Your Place program that integrated ideas of chemically-related processes, both associated with environmental changes in nature and human-made products. Both types of these processes shape and impact society and community, so I hoped that the students would gain insight into their surrounding place in a variety of ways. A few examples of the natural processes we explored are water flow across the landscape and cave formation. Examples of human-made products in the area include cast iron, whiskey, and cement. A significant outcome was the creation of this class for its first year, 2015; that initial work then led to an even more vibrant version of the course in its second year, 2016. That second version added a hands-on creation of art, cyanotype printing, that allowed the students to visualize the world around themselves in a variety of ways. Their work w as displayed in a gallery show at Stirling’s at the end of the Fall 2016 semester.
- The FYP group at Solomon’s Temple Cave
- Salamander noticed by students in a cave
- Entrance of a large cave (Buggy Top)
- Bottle and axe head found in train camp site
- Antique glass bottle found by FYP student
- Another iron artifact
- A cyanotype created with a flower picked on a hike