Spy Kids & Pop Art

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Spy Kids & Pop Art

WEEKLY ROUND-UP

Inspector Clouseau visited Wonder Kids on Monday, wearing silly glasses wtih nose and moustache. He informed us that “ze Wonder Kids’ lemur has hidden ze Friday prizes. He had a helper, and he was last zeen near ze Pop Art exhibition at ze Museum of Modern Art!” Kids worked hard to solve the mystery all week, designing spy gadgets and following the lemur’s trail through works of Pop Art.

In science, kids made spy periscopes based on the principles of light refraction and reflection. They then cooked up their own spy telephones, based on an understanding of how sound travels as vibrations. Campers even designed “stethoscopes” to listen to a sound inside a box. What a surprise to find a leaping monkey inside! Along the way, they also went through “spy training” in fingerprints, code-breaking, invisible ink, spy glasses and observation techniques, among other things.

In art, kids created their own amazing works of Pop Art. They began by “popping” a bowl of Trix into a larger than life creation, in the style of Claes Oldenburg. Giant, over-sized packs of Juicy Fruit and Bubblicious soon followed, as well as an enormous can of Coca Cola. Along the way, they considered how it feels when something ordinary suddenly gets blown up to a large size. Do we look at it in a different way? Have we ever really noticed it before in the same way?

Wonder Kids also “warholized” camp and other photos, in the multi-color pop style of Andy Warhol. They experimented with Keith Haring’s graffiti-style pop art, considering the way in which simple lines and forms can convey powerful emotions. Finally, they “blew up” popular cartoon and animation characters into larger-than-life posters, in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

>How does your periscope work? When you are looking at an object through the periscope, how and where does the light bounce through the mirrors inside it?

>How does your spy telephone work? Will it work better if the string is loose or tight? Why?

>If I wanted to listen to a leaping monkey inside a box - without getting too close to the box! - how could I design something to do this? What is the name of the special shape that helps to focus the sound for me (i.e. “parabola”)?

>If I were walking down the street, and wanted to take a look at a monkey following behind me (without turning around), how could I design a pair of spy glasses to do this?

>How can I make a copy of my fingerprints? What kinds of shapes am I likely to see on my fingerprints (with a magnifying glass)? (Loops, whorls and/or arches).

>What happens when you take something ordinary, like a pack of gum or a can of soda, and make it very very large? Do we look at in a different way? Have we ever really noticed it before in the same way?