This project (in progress) is a unique collaboration between Steve Appleton and Japanese visiting artist Yutaka Kobayashi. The two worked with students from Otis College of Art and Design to develop presentations for 4th graders that taught science and environmental lessons that were visually oriented.

Projecting live microscopic video images of protists from the Ballona Wetlands, the older students worked to develop art and science lesson plans that merged science and art. In one lesson, the 4th graders drew images of the organically shaped protists from the live video. Using those and other drawings the artists created a site specific art work, the "Protist Moss Garden". By translating the organic line drawings into vector based computer lines, the shapes were able to be scaled and cut in large Styrofoam by a computer numeric controlled router for use as "block outs" in a concrete pour. When the concrete hardens the foam will be pulled out and those areas planted.