Art Goes to School (AGTS) is an art enrichment and appreciation program sponsored by the Charles Street School PTA. At AGTS meetings we brainstorm ways to present art to each class in a fun and interesting format. This year we have decided on introducing students to Project Koko.
Project Koko has become one of the longest running interspecies communication studies in history, the only one involving gorillas. It has taught Koko and the late male (silverback) gorilla, Michael, to use sign language, fostered both gorillas’ artistic abilities, and changed the world’s perception of gorillas from that of “King Kong” to “Koko’s Kitten”.
Koko is a 35 year-old lowland gorilla who learned to speak American Sign Language when she was just a baby. Her teacher, Dr. Penny Patterson, began working with Koko as a Ph.D. project at Stanford, thinking it would only be a 4-year study.
Thirty-some years later, Penny and Koko continue to work together at the Gorilla Foundation in one of the longest interspecies communication studies ever conducted, the only one with gorillas. Koko now has a vocabulary of over 1000 signs, and understands even more spoken English.
To present the program to 550 students required the creation of a video using Microsoft Movie Maker. This 15 minute video was presented along with various artwork Koko and Michael painted. The lesson plan is the Art Goes To School Program can be found here.
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