Iowa, Minnesota Teachers Attempt To Draw Various Lessons From Printmaking

IOWA CITY — Teachers from Iowa and Minnesota watched intently last week as members of the Lasansky family — Tomas, Charlie, Rory, Heather and Diego — inked intricate prints with a 1970s-era press.The teachers, mostly math and science instructors attending the STEM Innovator program at the University of Iowa, were looking for ways they could incorporate the arts and entrepreneurship into their lessons.Their visit to the Lasansky studio on Benton Street came about thanks in part to Leslie Flynn, a clinical assistant professor of science education at the University of Iowa, who first met Tomas Lasansky in 2011 and now helps the family make Dutch mordant used in the etching process.“If you mix it wrong, it can be a problem,” said Flynn, a trained chemist.