I watched a boy in my third-grade class adjust his catapult's arm for the fifth time as he measured distances and recorded numbers on his data sheet. This was a personalized learning project, a time dedicated to intrinsic curiosity.
I gave no instructions on physics or engineering. He was discovering the relationship between arm length and distance entirely through his own experiments. "The longer arm launches farther!" he announced, super excited. Other students immediately wanted to try the same experiment.
I realized he was doing exactly what Leonardo da Vinci did 500 years ago in a basement laboratory in Milan. Leonardo would dig up cadavers, and then trace muscular structures while his incomplete Last Supper fresco waited upstairs.
I realized he was doing exactly what Leonardo da Vinci did 500 years ago in a basement laboratory in Milan. Leonardo would dig up cadavers, and then trace muscular structures while his incomplete Last Supper fresco waited upstairs.
Most artists would never connect anatomical dissection with religious painting. Leonardo saw them as inseparable. The muscles and tendons he traced taught him how human bodies moved and expressed emotion. He would eventually use this knowledge to paint the disciples' lifelike reactions to Christ's betrayal.
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