Decorah teacher leads a workshop at a national conference

Decorah High School art teacher Elizabeth Lorentzen has led a workshop at the 53rd annual National Art Education Association Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas. 

Lorentzen and IBM platform delivery project manager Phillip Einspahr presented "Community Collaboration: the Art and Physics of Solutions."  The workshop drew parallels between the disciplines of art and science and the creative problem solving process required in both.

Workshop attendees were divided into groups and given a problem to solve by Einspahr and Lorentzen.  Emphasizing the creative process, physics principles as well as art elements and principles were used to create prototypes of earthquake-proof towers.  Each group brainstormed a solution with the everyday materials presented to them, built and tested their models for effectiveness on an earthquake simulating machine, and then modified and retested as necessary.