The cost of 150 Bare Books Plus and a Bear Crayons Classroom Pack from Treetop Publishing and 15 boxes of Sanford Colored Pencils from Office Depot is $815, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
Students at this rural district in South Carolina basically end their art education in 5th grade, unless they choose to continue this endeavor as an elective. Students are receiving more opportunities to use technology like laptop computers and LCD projectors during elementary, middle and high school for projects and presentations rather than draw. They rely on clip art from software programs and pictures from the Internet to enhance their work. Many students do not understand that these same visuals can be completed through drawings and bring more character, depth and communication than a piece of clip art from the internet. Just look at Leonardo da Vinci and his wonderful paintings like the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper and his miraculous drawings of engineering devices like tanks, combat weaponry, flying machines and canals. Students believe this was a person who should be put on a pedestal and can never be touched, even when I try to convince them otherwise. I tell them they are capable of anything and that Leonardo da Vinci was a human also, just like them.
My students struggle when it comes to looking at objects in a microscope and drawing what they see, looking at nature and capturing the true beauty of the world around them or drawing what they are thinking rather than trying to explain the object in words. Instead, it is easier to use a computer and search for what you want rather than enjoy the complex detail that the environment holds for us.
The purpose of this project is to incorporate art and science to allow students to see that drawing is essential to science. The blank books will allow students a sense of ownership, empowerment and creativity since the book will be theirs to decorate and keep. The erasable crayons and pencils will allow the students to feel they can take chances and make mistakes. These materials will enhance classroom activities through the collection of objective and subjective data during laboratory experiments, ecology hikes, and science fair projects to engage students in looking for detail and thinking about how structure and function relates to what we are studying.
This project will incorporate the following activities:
? Having an art and science teacher integrate lessons to help students learn about the art and science of drawing and colors.
? Students will complete drawings of all microscope work during the year using erasable crayons and pencils.
? Students will use their blank books to keep an on-going journal of their student designed inquiry project which includes drawings, tables, graphs and charts of the experiments as well as written commentary.
? Students participating in science club will be given an additional blank book to record and draw items from the club's activities including a trip to the zoo, nature hike in mountains and environmental research using the erasable crayons and pencils.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Iacuone and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.