According to its website, ” ‘Common Ground‘ is a collaborative kinetic art installation about connecting America through creativity and problem solving.”
The result is a video that shows 5 Rube Goldberg reactions created in 5 different locations across the country. Each one “triggers” the one that follows. (I particularly liked the “Women in Stem” portion from New Hampshire.) The projects reflect major issues representative of the artists’ regions, so the video is probably best for older students who can discuss the message delivered by each one. The final segment of the video returns to its starting place, Oakland, and addresses the issue of excessive force used by police officers.
If you find the idea of doing a collaborative Rube Goldberg video intriguing, you may want to sign up your class to participate in this global one that is being produced by Brad Gustafson. As Brad says, “This will require higher-level thinking, teamwork, and a bunch of other stuff that might not immediately lead to perfect ACT scores. However, it will model risk-taking, digital-age collaboration, transformative technology use…and maybe even some asynchronous communication.”
