Finding Science and Art in the Japanese Tradition of Bonsai
Beginning at the start of this school year and continuing all the way through winter, sixth graders delved into topics in science, art, and history through a study of bonsai.
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. The purpose of bonsai is to reward the grower with the pleasant experience of tending and pruning a miniature tree, as well as to afford the viewer the opportunity for contemplation. By contrast with other plant cultivation practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food, medicine, or creating landscapes. Instead, bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container.
Sixth graders delved deeply into the tradition of bonsai in Oliver Hay's science classroom, tracing its history and learning first-hand about its growth and cultivation. The students nurtured source plants, participated in the repotting of a bonsai tree, including trimming its roots, and took charge of pruning and watering the trees throughout the year.
"My students were intrigued with the pruning process," says Hay. "It required patience and an ability to visualize a plant's growth process for them to determine which precise cuts they could make to a tree without damaging it."
Part of the science project was researching the two species of bonsai trees the students grew, Portulacaria afra (dwarf jade) and Schefflera arboricola (umbrella tree). "The creation of bonsai is ultimately limited only by the imagination and talent of the gardener," says Hay, "but species such as these tropical varieties are more suitable because of hardiness and adaptability." The students studied environmental factors that affect the growth of bonsai, including light, temperature, and humidity.
The dwarf jade looks much like a baby jade plant, while the umbrella tree is a hardy houseplant ideal for more irregular shaping. "Several of my sixth graders enjoyed the experience so much that they now have their own bonsai at home," says Hay.
Once this phase of this project concluded, the bonsai trees traveled from the science classroom to Ruth Bauer's art room for an interdisciplinary project connecting both art and science topics.
Using natural materials like twigs, moss, and stones, sixth graders made miniature sculptures of bonsai trees. "Their challenge," says Bauer, "was to incorporate traditional Japanese visual principles in their designs."
Aesthetically, the main aim of bonsai cultivation is to create miniature trees with an air of age in their overall shapes, proportions, and details. The quintessential bonsai is a single, dwarfed tree in a small container. It has the appearance of a mature tree, but not of a completely natural one. Instead, a designer or artist has manipulated the shape and surfaces of the tree to enhance or exaggerate the tree's apparent age, and also to give it a defined "front" from which it is meant to be viewed.
"At the same time," says Bauer, "students had to consider traditional bonsai practices which encourage asymmetry, simplicity, visual balance, and curvature."
In the next phase of their study, students had to draw their sculptures. "We were inspired by work we saw at the Peabody-Essex Museum in the 'Sizing It Up' exhibit, which explores the concept of scale and challenges our perception of perspective, relative size, and proportion."
Students drew their miniature sculptures on a much larger scale using calculations of proportion and ratio. Additionally, the sixth graders learned new watercolor techniques that they incorporated into their pictures of their tiny sculptures, and used careful observation to draw a small detail of the live bonsai.
"My students became very attached to their tiny sculptures," says Bauer.
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Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. The purpose of bonsai is to reward the grower with the pleasant experience of tending and pruning a miniature tree, as well as to afford the viewer the opportunity for contemplation. By contrast with other plant cultivation practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food, medicine, or creating landscapes. Instead, bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container.
Sixth graders delved deeply into the tradition of bonsai in Oliver Hay's science classroom, tracing its history and learning first-hand about its growth and cultivation. The students nurtured source plants, participated in the repotting of a bonsai tree, including trimming its roots, and took charge of pruning and watering the trees throughout the year.
"My students were intrigued with the pruning process," says Hay. "It required patience and an ability to visualize a plant's growth process for them to determine which precise cuts they could make to a tree without damaging it."
Part of the science project was researching the two species of bonsai trees the students grew, Portulacaria afra (dwarf jade) and Schefflera arboricola (umbrella tree). "The creation of bonsai is ultimately limited only by the imagination and talent of the gardener," says Hay, "but species such as these tropical varieties are more suitable because of hardiness and adaptability." The students studied environmental factors that affect the growth of bonsai, including light, temperature, and humidity.
The dwarf jade looks much like a baby jade plant, while the umbrella tree is a hardy houseplant ideal for more irregular shaping. "Several of my sixth graders enjoyed the experience so much that they now have their own bonsai at home," says Hay.
Once this phase of this project concluded, the bonsai trees traveled from the science classroom to Ruth Bauer's art room for an interdisciplinary project connecting both art and science topics.
Using natural materials like twigs, moss, and stones, sixth graders made miniature sculptures of bonsai trees. "Their challenge," says Bauer, "was to incorporate traditional Japanese visual principles in their designs."
Aesthetically, the main aim of bonsai cultivation is to create miniature trees with an air of age in their overall shapes, proportions, and details. The quintessential bonsai is a single, dwarfed tree in a small container. It has the appearance of a mature tree, but not of a completely natural one. Instead, a designer or artist has manipulated the shape and surfaces of the tree to enhance or exaggerate the tree's apparent age, and also to give it a defined "front" from which it is meant to be viewed.
"At the same time," says Bauer, "students had to consider traditional bonsai practices which encourage asymmetry, simplicity, visual balance, and curvature."
In the next phase of their study, students had to draw their sculptures. "We were inspired by work we saw at the Peabody-Essex Museum in the 'Sizing It Up' exhibit, which explores the concept of scale and challenges our perception of perspective, relative size, and proportion."
Students drew their miniature sculptures on a much larger scale using calculations of proportion and ratio. Additionally, the sixth graders learned new watercolor techniques that they incorporated into their pictures of their tiny sculptures, and used careful observation to draw a small detail of the live bonsai.
"My students became very attached to their tiny sculptures," says Bauer.
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