How Would Pikachu's Skeleton Look?

Kottke recently pointed out an illustration of the anatomy of a balloon animal. He also linked to a series of work created by Michael Paulus. I wanted to point to this and make a few comments.

First, the balloon animal image is posted to deviantART. In educational blog conversations about Web 2.0, this is a site I haven't seen any educational pundits mention. The site encourages artists to post their art, comment on other people's work, form groups, etc. If MySpace grew out of music, deviantART is similar but has grown out of photography, painting, illustrating, etc. It's worth being aware of.

Second, having students explore the skeletons of cartoon characters is a brilliant assignment. In asking students to apply a concept they've learned about (skeletons) to an unknown quantity (i.e. Hello Kitty) you're forcing them to be creative, to reason, to be critical, and more. To me, this is what "21st Century Skills" are all about.