Keep an Art & Science Notebook
I Overdue Things
Author’s Note:
I originally wrote the following as part of chapter 1 of Leonardo’s Science Workshop. Then my editor, Judith Cressy, pointed out that I had written 10,000 words over the manuscript limit, so she cut the following. And then she cut more, which will be another blog post, a continuation of this, on designing and creating a notebook or sketchbook.
As with the draft of Leonardo’s Science Workshop, I sometimes overdue things. Please take advantage of this.
This post is an example. Put the content to good use — no need to buy Leonardo’s Science Workshop (though I hope you will); no need to check out the book from your library (if they do not have it, please ask the librarian to acquire a few copies). I give the following from my heart.
I wrote this for young people ages 10 to 14 to encourage them in the beautiful blend of science and art. I considered utterly revamping this piece for women — you — and your genius, creativity and self-regard for your ideas, but women’s relationships and responsibilities come in multiples — including mother, grandmother, aunt, mentor, advisor, role model, and so on — so I am keeping the original in tact. You might do the following activity with the young people in your life — encourage their creativity and genius while nurturing your own.
The encouragement you will find here, including “Write with energy” and “Write down details,” applies to everyone at every age.
Keep an Art & Science Notebook
Leonardo da Vinci passionately followed the interests of his heart. Being a genius begins with grabbing onto something you love and are driven to do.
Leonardo excelled at so many things in science, art, and engineering because he had a process that was made up of these practices —
Being curious — always wanting to know how and why things are
Asking questions — being unwaveringly inquisitive
Pursuing discovery
Testing ideas and testing them again
Exploring how to solve problems
Writing and drawing pictures to —
Form questions, ideas, and plans for how to conduct experiments and build things,
Explain the outcomes of his experiments and projects, and
List books and people he would consult about his next question or idea
Of the six practices on this list, one unites all of the others. Can you guess which one it is?
It is the practice through which Leonardo developed and sharpened his process as a scientist. It served his art and engineering, too! This practice deepened his thinking. It made his ideas more original, or truest to who he was and what he thought. There were multiple brilliant Renaissance men, minds with whom Leonardo worked and who were his friends. But he did something that set his work apart from others, just as it does for scientists and artists today and just as it will for you.
It is the last thing on the list: using words and pictures to capture questions, ideas, lists, plans, and resources. Leonardo kept notebooks. In fact, he often carried a small notebook on his belt so he would be prepared, at all times, to write down a question, make a note, draw a conclusion, or sketch the emotion he observed on the face of another human being.
Let’s take inspiration from Leonardo and create a great art and science notebook.
Doodles, Data, and Sketches
Your notebook will be just your notebook. In it you will collect the questions and ideas of your heart and mind, just as Leonardo did.
Your notebook will bring you closer to doing what scientists do, and a science notebook is maybe the most important tool that scientists use. Before there were microscopes and telescopes and other tools of science, there was someone writing down her or his ideas and sketches for inventing the tool. The science notebook is the heartbeat that keeps the scientific process alive and moving.
Artists, Scientists and Their Notebooks
“As a scientist, I often use the right side [of my science notebook] to keep track of my data (observations and measurements). On the left side, though, I keep my personal notes – ideas about the project and future questions I might test, thoughts about the research design and limitations, and notes about other studies to look up.
“I always write the date on each page and the topic, so I am clear on the context of my notes.
Because I was trained by an ecologist, I often use a pencil because if the notebook gets wet, I won’t lose my notes.
“As a science educator, I continue to share these tips with my students: write what you know on the right side, write what you think and wonder on the left. Write the topic and date on each page. Use pencil or pen — whatever makes sense.”
— Meena Balgopal, Ph.D,
Entomologist and science educator
Your notebook can be a spiral notebook, a three-ring binder, sheets of paper in a folder, or notecards hole-punched and gathered on a small metal ring.
No matter how it looks or is made, if you love it, it will work for you.
By Keeping a Notebook on His Belt, Leonardo Always Was Prepared to Record What He Observed and Thought
Among the 13,000 pages of entries he made, Leonardo recorded the following in his notebooks:
“The tips of the boughs of plants, unless they are borne down by the weight of their fruits, turn towards the sky as much as possible. The upper side of their leaves is turned towards the sky that it may receive the nourishment of the dew which falls at night.”
“Look at the light and consider its beauty. Blink your eye and look at it again: what you see was not there at first, and what was there is no more.”
“Dissect the bat, and concentrate on this, and on this model arrange the [flying] machine.”
Keeping a Notebook Helped Leonardo Be True to Himself
Leonardo wrote and sketched in his notebooks to understand the world. While other men of the Renaissance generally copied what had been done by scientists and philosophers in ancient Greece, Leonardo pursued work in science, art, and engineering that was new. He was a pioneer. He trusted his own mind and experience more than what others said. His notebook entries helped him to develop his thinking and be true to his own ideas and process for figuring out how things worked.
When he was in his sixties (he lived to be 67) Leonardo wrote the following in his notebook, “I shall now define the nature of composite scales . . . . but first I shall do some experiments before I proceed farther, because my intention is to cite experience first and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.”
In another entry he gave himself this assignment, “Write how the clouds are formed and how they dissolve and what it is that causes vapor to rise from the water of the earth into the air . . . .”
He continues this entry in one, long sentence, assigning himself eight more related things to explore, including why the sky “appears more blue or less blue at one time than at another” and to “write of new shapes that snow forms in the air . . . .”
When we think of what it means to be a genius, we might think of the “Three I’s of Leonardo” —
Inquisitive, Imaginative, and Inventive.
The Notes You Keep Are for You
Photo by Liam Anderson from Pexels
Keeping a notebook is about figuring out what you really think, how to express what you think, and how to develop original ideas. Here is a way to begin.
Write down the very thing you are most interested in right now.
What sparked your interest? How did your interest begin? Describe that time.
What are three questions you have about your current favorite thing? Write out each question.
What first-hand experience do you have with your current favorite thing? Leonardo called experience “the mother of all certainty.” Describe how your favorite thing looks, sounds, feels, and smells. If it is a food, such as your favorite ice cream, also describe how it tastes. These are descriptions of your own experience; you can’t go wrong.
If it helps you express what you want to say, draw pictures for any of your answers. Write a caption of one or two sentences to accompany each drawing.
In a Notebook, Imagination, Ideas, and Details Are More Important Than Spelling and Grammar
New rules for writing!
Write with energy. Enthusiasm rules. Legendary writing teacher Brenda Ueland says, “Be a Lion! Be a Pirate when you write!” Be bold. What is the boldest, wildest thing you can think of? A tiger? A hornet? A charging rhinoceros? A mother bear fiercely protecting her cubs? Choose your favorite image that defines bold. When you write, be this kind of bold!
Write down details. If your favorite ice cream flavor is bubblegum, describe the exact color of every kind of bubblegum in the ice cream. Then describe the texture of the gum. Is it smooth? Gritty? Small and hard? Can gum that is frozen be easily chewed and blown into bubbles? Do all of the colors melt together to make one new color? What color does your tongue become when eating bubblegum ice cream? Capture the details.
In your science notebook spelling and grammar are less important than ideas, energy, imagination, and detail. If you are writing down new science terms and you are not sure of the spelling, skip it! Keep the enthusiasm and energy going! Make something up! Consult a dictionary later.
Science Writing: Forming Questions and Plans and Describing Experience
“All true sciences are the result of Experience which has passed through our senses . . . .”
— Leonardo da Vinci, notebook entry
The senses Leonardo refers to in the sentence above are the five physical senses:
What you can taste.
What you can hear.
What you can smell.
What you can see.
And what you can touch.
Working with one or several senses gives an artist and scientist the Experience — with a capital E — that Leonardo tells us leads to certainty. Leonardo based good science on the Experience of what his senses told him. From our Experience, in other words, we gather facts. Facts are certainty. Experience, he wrote, always moves forward step by step and leads to results that cannot be argued with.
To use your senses and gather facts, some of what you will enter in your science notebook includes —
Your questions.
Things you observe, not only what you see, but what you closely regard and study with your eyes.
New science terms and their definitions.
Your ideas.
Doodles and sketches.
Your plans: steps you will take to do a project or experiment in order to test an idea.
The results of your projects and experiments. You will describe what happened during the experiment and what you observed as you did it.
Plans you have for repeating an experiment. Leonardo outlined his process of experimentation so he knew exactly what he had done so he could repeat it.
Conclusions you have about experiments and observations.
Connections you have made across subjects: experiences where science and art come together or where you used math in a science experiment or how you blended technology and art and math and had a great outcome.
And this: quotes from others worth saving and remembering. As an example, here are words of wisdom from Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Final note: To this post we are devoting a follow-on piece on designing and making your own art and science notebook.
Thank you.
