Resources

As a magician, Arthur Okamura wrote and illustrated his own magic trick books, including Paper Propeller, the Jumping Frog, the Spinning Quarter: And 38 Other Amazing Tricks You Can Do With Stuff Lying Around the House. In this activity, you will complete one of his physical balance tricks and suspend one cup above or at the same height of three other cups.

Inspired by Okamura and the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, students will learn about California’s water distribution and drought through the integration of science, math, and art.

Biography and lesson plans

Use animal templates to make a mix and match game where you create new mythical creatures.

Archaeology is the study of the material remains of humanity’s past. Excavated materials, along with other historical objects and text records, form the primary source material on Ancient China.

Students will: 1.) examine the Hindu tradition of threshold art; 2.) discuss how Indian values are expressed in the ephemeral art of threshold painting; 3.) draw traditional connect-the-dots threshold art designs; 4.) make colored rice flour and create an auspicious floor painting

The First Emperor of China (Qin Shihuang) famously consumed mercury because it was thought to preserve his youth. The search for eternal youth leads us to myriad modern-day creams, balms, tonics, lifts, and tucks–but can they really help us age gracefully? Join Bay Area Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner Amy Petrarca, MS, RN, Lac. in an exploration of the fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

As with art, literature, and philosophy, the Tang dynasty (618-906) nurtured a Golden Age of development and innovation in science and technology that culminated in the Song dynasty (960-1279). The expansive exchange of foreign goods and information during the Tang, together with the high value placed upon close observation and analysis that characterized the Song, set the stage for vigorous scientific innovations. Important advances were made in astronomy, agriculture, industry, medicine, and military technologies.

Scholars often refer to the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties as the “medieval” period of China. The civilizations of the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties of China were among the most advanced civilizations in the world at the time. Discoveries in the realms of science, art, philosophy, and technology—combined with a curiosity about the world around them—provided the men and women of this period with a worldview and level of sophistication that in many ways were unrivaled until much later times, even in China itself.