Stand Up For Art

My Students

My art room is in an elementary school with 600 of the most enthusiastic artists that I have ever met. Our child-centered art studio features 6-8 different art centers where students can work to meet their studio challenges. Some love to paint or print, while other students prefer to create 3-D art.

I am creating a STEAM center in my art room, where students can create three-dimensional artwork while developing math, science, engineering and technology skills.

Students will use critical thinking and problem solving skills to solve studio challenges like: "Create a Puppet that can move using a force of motion." or "Use air dry clay to create models in the stages of the life cycle of an organism." Students will use a variety of materials like air dry clay, wood, paper mâché and recycled items to create their art. I would like to include an iPad at the center mounted on the document camera stand that students can use to photograph their projects and create animated movies using their artwork. For example, they could work in collaborative groups to create a short movie featuring the puppets they created. They could also create claymation style movies to explain the life cycle of an organism. Through this project students will use skills learned in science and math to create their art.

My Project

I am requesting the Dewey document camera stand because students will be able to mount an IPad to the stand and use it photograph art they create for the STEM based studio challenges like creating puppets that use force to move or models of stages of an organism's life cycle. They can collaborate in groups to plan stop-motion videos with these photographs. This will involve some creative problem solving because they will have to create their movable art so they can pose it for a series of photographs to create their animations. The document camera will not only be an aid for photographing and video-taping their creations, but it will also let students project their videos onto the whiteboard for collaborating and presenting. I am requesting the Sargent air dry clay because it is a versatile material that can be used to mold parts of puppets or models of organisms in many different positions. The camera stand and clay will help turn my Steam art center into a Claymation studio.

This project will help me create a STEAM center in my room that will give students more opportunities to improve their 21st century skills.

They will be able to apply skills learned in math and science class to engineer art projects that can move and use technology like the document camera stand attached to an IPad to create animated videos. Students will be able to integrate their math, science and art skills to document their learning through technology collaboratively.