30 minute read
Curriculum Initiatives
Curriculum Initiatives >> Chemical Reaction Vehicles A STEM project takes off in fifth-grade classrooms. By Wendy Smith and Jesse Meyer
The classroom is abuzz. Students surround the test track, craning their necks for a better view. An engineering team works together to load chemicals, add water with a syringe, quickly fix a cork into the bottle, and position their chemi- cal reaction vehicle against the wall. They step back and crouch low as pressure builds in the chamber. Some children cover their ears in anticipation. One member of the team lies down on the oor, peering through her goggles to determine if there is a leak. Suddenly, a loud pop explodes and the car is propelled forward while children scream in surprise or cheer the success of their classmates. As the boy and girl measure the distance their vehicle traveled, they discuss how to adjust the amount of chemicals to improve its performance, and a new team prepares for the next test. The joy and excitement about science and engineering is au- dible throughout the afternoon.
The fifth-grade students at Hong Kong International School have been learning about the structures and properties of matter for many years, but two years ago the teachers added an engineering design challenge to provide them with the opportunity to apply their understanding of how matter behaves and changes to solve a problem. The chemical reaction vehicle design challenge was the culminating experience in a unit called “Structures and Properties of Matter.” During this unit, students explored basic properties of matter, various physical changes of matter, and indicators of chemical changes.
In the preface of the book The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems, Henry Petroski (2010, p. IX), “... seeks to illuminate the differences between science and engineering and thereby clarify their respective roles in the worlds of thought and action, of knowing and doing.” Petroski argues that it is the interaction of both science and engineering that is necessary to solve critical global issues including climate change and clean, renewable energy sources. Engineering is, then, the application of what we know about science.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) echo Petroski’s ideas. A Framework for K–12 Science Education (NRC 2012) notes that students deepen their understanding of science by applying their knowledge to engineering and technology to solve practical problems.
Students design their own vehicles to test.
Both positions converge on the intention of integrating technology and engineering into the science curriculum so students feel empowered to use what they learn in their everyday lives.
Introducing the Challenge
The engineering design challenge presented to students required them to use their “...knowledge of science to help design and build a vehicle that is powered solely by a chemical reaction.” Once the project was introduced, the students shared their understandings of the challenge and formulated questions to clarify misunderstandings. Some questions included: • What materials can we use? • How do we make a chemical reaction? • Can we use a toy car that we have at home? • How much time do we have to do the project? • Can we pick our partners?
Next, the teachers presented the criteria and constraints in order to answer the students’ questions and to provide clarification (Figure 1; See NSTA Connection for project introduction).
FIGURE 1. Project criteria and constraints. Criteria Vehicle must travel at least 1 m. Constraints • Vehicle must not exceed 30cm. • Vehiclemustbeconstructed using available materials (no toy cars). • Chemical reaction must occur from combining the substances and water available in the classroom. • Once the chamber for the reaction is chosen, no changes can be made to that part of the design.
The decision regarding how partnerships were created was left up to individual teachers. Some chose to assign partner groups, while others let the students decide. The timeline for the project was also determined by each classroom teacher, with some preferring to do the project over three to four days with two to three hours of project time each day, while others completed the project over two weeks with approximately one hour of project time each day. Parts 1 and 2, described below, take approximately equal amounts of time. While all the students at our school had experience in previous grades with engineering design challenges, the teachers felt that a quick refresher on the process prior to starting the project would benefit students. Crash Course Kids, a YouTube channel focusing on elementary science, has a series of short, engaging videos on an engineering design process. Teachers shared the episode, “The Engineering Process: Crash Course Kids #12.2.” Students discussed the video and compared
The vehicle testing area.
the steps shown to the steps we use universally in our school: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve (see Engineering is Elementary under Internet Resources).
Students were required to document their scienti c and engineering work in their lab notebooks. Students used a checklist in order to keep track of project guidelines and assessment criteria (see NSTA Connection).
Getting Down to Work
The project was composed of two parts. Part 1 focused on the application of science and Part 2 focused on engineering design. The project was split into two parts after the first year of implementation because the teachers observed that when the project was openended and students had more exibility in how they approached the challenge, students tended to focus more on the design of the vehicle chassis and less on the chemical reaction intended to provide its power. They also noticed that the students’ approaches to solving the problem were poorly planned and unstructured, most often due to the inherent excitement of getting to make chemicals react. The teachers revised the unit to strengthen the logical connections between what students discovered while testing the chemical reaction chamber and in designing an effective vehicle on which it could be mounted.
Part 1: The Application of Science
During Part 1 of the project, students gured out the most effective combination of substances and water in their chamber to create a reaction to propel the vehicle forward. Available materials included: • Citric acid • Baking soda • Water • Coffee lters • Soda bottles of various sizes • Film canisters • A variety of smaller, plastic, narrow-mouthed bottles • Corks • Rubber stoppers
Many students wanted to use vinegar as part of their chemical reactions due to a previous exploration in the science lab. However, the teachers prohibited this material due to its cost as well as to the challenges asso- ciated with maintaining a clean class- room environment. Students were permitted to bring bottles from home for their Teachers and students agreed on safety protocols prior to the start of the project. For instance, they con- cluded that safety goggles should be worn at all times while working with the substances. Additionally, the testing area was cordoned off to ensure that only the group testing could use the space. Finally, it was agreed that the teachers would approve investigation plans before testing to ensure safe and reasonable amounts of substances were being used. Teachers then modeled how to effectively clean and dry the testing area after each trial using buckets of water, sponges, and dry towels. For more information on chemical safety, visit the NSTA Safety in the Science Classroom website (see Internet Resources).
Before the start of the project, students conducted an investigation into chemical reactions to determine whether or not mixing two or more substances resulted in a new substance. Teachers modified an existing lesson from The Institute for Inquiry, a professional development program from the Exploratorium (see Internet Resources). Students set up investigations to discover chemical reaction indicators. They deduced that the appearance of new substances is indicated by color change, temperature variations, and/or gas formation (see student instruction sheet titled “Changes” online; see NSTA Connection). Gas formation resulting from the combination of two or more substances became the driving force in the students’ application of science to solve the design challenge.
Next, all students began by placing 5 g of baking soda and 5 g of citric acid in an 8 oz. plastic cup and added 50 mL of room-temperature water. Observations were shared and the teachers led a discussion about the variables. Variables identi ed by the students included: • container for the reaction • amount of water • amount of baking soda • amount of citric acid • temperature of water
Students discussed how they could change only one variable at a time to try and gure out the most effective combination of substances and water to use in a given chamber to create a chemical reaction that would propel the vehicle forward. Students realized that they could change the container for the reaction and keep all the other variables the same (5 g baking soda, 5 g citric acid, 50 mL water). While the temperature of the water is a variable, the dif culty of keeping temperatures constant during testing would prove to be too dif cult, so students were limited to using room-temperature water for all investigations.
Each group decided on the most effective prototype and began testing the chemical reaction to propel the chamber forward. Distances for each of the three trials were measured and recorded in notebooks. After round one, students shared their results with the class. Then they compared the data collected by different groups regarding the relationship between the volume of the chamber and the distance it traveled and contrasted it with their own results.
The analysis of data by the class was used to inform the next round of investigations. While students under- stood the necessity of changing only one variable at a time, teachers did nd that when partner groups shared their testing results with the class, they often did not incrementally change the amounts of the substances to be used. The initial investigation started with 5 g each of baking soda and citric acid, and in the second investigation some students wanted to jump up to using 20 g or more of a substance. Conver- sations ensued regarding the benefit of making incremental changes to identify causeand-effect relationships. In addition to realizing the importance of incremental change, students realized relationships between chamber volume and amount of substances used to create a reaction.
Students had approximately four to five hours to develop and test the amounts of the substances and water to create the chemical reaction in the chosen chamber. Throughout the testing phase, students continually shared results, compared and analyzed data, and used the findings and observations of other teams to guide their investigations. They quickly discovered several cause-and-effect relationships, including how the volume of the chamber affects the pressure of gas formation inside, how the tightness of the cork affects the propulsion from the reaction, and how the starting position of the chamber either against a wall or not affected the distance traveled.
Students documented all of their work for Part 1 in their lab notebooks and used the project checklist to guide their work. Once the students finalized the chamber and the exact amount of substances to create the chemical reaction, no changes were allowed to that part of the vehicle.
Part 2: Engineering Design Process
During Part 2 of the project, students used an engineering design process to create a chassis that incorporated the chemical reaction chamber. Materials provided for use of the vehicle included but were not limited to: • Cardboard • Aluminum foil • CDs • Toilet paper and paper towel tubes • Wooden skewers and dowels • Straws • Various Lego pieces
Students brought additional materials from home to build their vehicles as long as they were not pre-made toy cars. The teachers wanted students to have experience building a vehicle designed for the chamber they tested.
To launch Part 2, the students individually brainstormed vehicle design ideas and then shared ideas with their partners. Models of the designs included labels of materials used and placement of the chamber on the chassis. Partners discussed possible pros and cons of each design and together decided on the initial prototype to be constructed. Depending on the materials and prototype design, some groups quickly constructed an effective prototype, while others discovered that it was difficult to design a vehicle with wheels that spin freely. The teams that encountered this failure looked at the designs of other teams, observed how the wheel and axle system on toy cars work, and drew revised models of the vehicle designs in their notebooks. Some teams bypassed the traditional vehicle chassis, changing their designs to sleds and thus eliminating the need to build a wheel and axle system.
Once the vehicle chassis was built, the chamber connected, and substances and water added, groups tested the overall effectiveness of the design. Distances were measured and observations were recorded for multiple trials to serve as evidence to guide in the improvement of the vehicle. Since one of the constraints of the challenge stated, “Once the A student shares his data with the class. chamber for the reaction is chosen, no changes can be made to that part of the design,” all improvements in this stage of the project were focused on the vehicle design and no longer on the chemical reaction inside the chamber. Many students identified the cause-andeffect relationship between the weight of the chassis and the chemical reaction’s ability to power the vehicle. As a result, groups modi ed their chassis by streamlining their designs or making other modi cations to the wheel design, chamber position, or variables related to steering the vehicle in a straight line. Multiple design solutions to address a specific failure point were tested in order to determine which best met the criteria. For example, one group adjusted the angle of the chamber mounted on the chassis three different ways,
Students continued to document their work in the lab notebooks using the project checklist to make sure all important components were included in their writing. Teachers periodically displayed varied examples of lab notebooks in order for students to self-reflect and to help guide them toward successful documentation of their work. science and engineering practices, and schoolwide goals of resiliency and collaboration.
When teachers assess the students, they should consider the “Application of Science” and “Engineering Design Process” sections of the chemical reaction vehicle checklist and related documentation in the student notebooks to determine whether or not learning goals were met. Teachers that have implemented this project noted that some groups met the learning goals of the project even though their vehicles did not travel one meter. In addition to the notebook and checklist, anecdotal observations during the project should provide teachers with the evi- dence required to make summative assessments of student learning.
Students Erik and Michelle summed up the experience when they reflected that, “Even though our car failed three times, on the fourth time we got it to go more than three meters. We didn’t fail three times, we succeeded once. After the fourth time, we finally made the chemical reaction work. We learned from making a ton of mistakes, and we made it better.”
A student shares his data with the class.
On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!
The day of nal testing was full of energy, excitement, and anticipation. Students enjoyed viewing and discussing each other’s final vehicle designs between launches. Loud pops, screams of surprise, laughter, and words of encouragement and congratulation were constant for the duration of the testing day. While not all groups met the criteria of having their vehicle travel a full meter, they were still successful because they created chemical reactions in the chamber to move the vehicle some distance.
More important than the actual distance the vehicle traveled was the students’ experiences with the iterative design process and as both scientists and engineers. In the early stages of the testing, many groups failed to launch vehicles. This provided opportunities for teachers to coach students on ways to analyze every attempted launch to search for ways to redesign vehicles. In cases like this, students often discovered that corks were fixed too loosely, gas formed before the stopper was pushed on, or not enough chemicals were added for enough gas to form and build pressure. In each case, students returned to their notebooks, discussed modifications, sketched ideas, and rebuilt their vehicles. Often, students returned to test again and either solved the distinct engineering problem identi ed before or analyzed and returned to the drawing board. Having ample time for students to discover possible problems and brainstorm solutions was integral to their working as scientists and engineers in an authentic way.
Assessment
Both students and teachers assessed using the project checklist. Students recorded the page numbers from their lab notebooks that illustrated each point on the checklist, including how their vehicles met the criteria and constraints. They also completed a self-reflection form (see NSTA Connection) in order to capture their perceptions on how well they felt they learned key disciplinary core ideas, Modifications
Some students may struggle in Part 1 to complete a functioning vehicle and engine. To ensure students have adequate opportunities to meet the standards, teachers may consider providing some students with pre-built or designed components. Toy cars onto which a engine could be mounted, an engine design that is known to work well, or a combination of both devised by the teacher may be helpful for students with certain constraints. In Part 2, the teacher might suggest amounts of chemicals for starting points and help students develop and record appropriate increments. Modifications to Parts 1 and 2 as outlined will help scaffold the learning experience for students in some classrooms while still allowing for the sense of excitement and discovery inherent in the project.
While interacting with and observing students at work, the teachers developed several ways to differentiate the project. First, they noticed that in their attempts to make the vehicles go as far as possible, students were using greater quantities of the chemical materials quickly, resulting in shortages. The teachers suggested adjusting the criteria from “Vehicle must travel at least 1 meter in distance” to “Vehicle must travel between 1 and 2 meters in distance.”
Not only would this constraint limit the use and waste of resources, but it would also increase the level of dif culty and precision required by the students. Next, teachers considered adding an element of economics to the project in order to help students consider the amount of materials being used. In this way, the most successful vehicles would be the ones that not only met the criteria for success by traveling at least a meter but also did so with the most economic ef ciency (i.e., used the least amount of materials). Both suggestions for improvement would save money and materials for the school and increase the challenge level in the project for the students. Finally, the teachers noticed that some teams’ vehicles failed to reach the one meter distance in the criteria. However, the teams still met the performance expectations by designing and testing prototypes as well as conducting investigations into chemical reactions. For students with special learning needs, modifying the criteria may be required.
Final Thoughts
The chemical reaction vehicles project was a success in many ways. Teachers noted highly engaged students experiencing the interaction of science and engineering as well as the opportunity for children to think creatively, work collaboratively, and develop resiliency when challenged with difficult work. The energy in the classroom throughout the week, from introduction to design to testing, built steadily like the pressure in the vehicle chambers, propelling student learning and collaboration forward at an explosive speed.
Wendy Smith (wendysmith1005@ gmail.com) is a STEM special- ist, and Jesse Meyer (jmeyer61@ gmail.com) is a fth-grade teacher, both at the Hong Kong Internation- al School.
References
National Research Council (NRC). 2012.
A framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. NGSS Lead States. 2013.
Next Generation Science Standards: For states, by states. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Petroski, H. 2010. The Essential Engineer: Why science alone will not solve our global problems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Internet Resources
Engineering is Elementary: Engineering Design Process www.eie.org/overview/engineering-design-process The Engineering Process: Crash Course Kids #12.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxJWin195kU Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry www.exploratorium.edu/education/i NSTA Safety in the Science Classroom www.nsta.org/safety
NSTA Connection Download the project introduction, student instruction sheet checklist, and self-reflection at www.nsta.org/ SC1711.
Curriculum Initiatives >> Empowering Diverse Learners through Community Public Radio
By Steve Sostak, International School Beijing
To be honest, I’m a bit obsessed with trying to embed global citizenship into international school classrooms. At ISB, my colleagues know that my teaching practice and philosophy hinges on getting students to interact compellingly with sustainability goals, global contexts, and authentic action. Over the past decade, I’ve attempted to find many ways to consistently link citizenship and standards, and I think I might have found something special in Futures Public Radio (FPR).
After being involved with in-depth service work while teaching in Peru, I agreed to design a global citizenship enrichment class in Malaysia, which sparked a website and a rich bank of resources and classroom evidence. Later, I co-curated a Global Issues Network (GIN) conference and school residency with Water for South Sudan, fifty middle school students, and the Jump! Foundation that to this day remains one of my happiest moments in teaching. And while still teaching at ISB, I’ve been able to co-found the Occupy Middle School (OMS) consultancy group and teacher collective. It’s been amazing to collaborate with teachers who see that our opportunity at international schools includes a moral imperative to empower our learners with literacy in sustainability, empathy, action, and service. The beautiful result that I have discovered is that students, across all
ranges, including my EAL classroom, address global and local challenges with passion, without losing content and language objectives that we as educators might fear. In fact, the published, communitydriven work is of the highest quality.
After a GIN conference three years ago, I was inspired but frustrated by the difficulty in finding a sustainable media platform for students to remain connected around their community work and stories. I remember preparing breakfast and listening to National Public Radio (NPR) when an idea occurred to me: Why not use NPR as a mentor model for an international school community radio platform for storytelling, investigative journalism, and sustainable student networking?
Luckily, ISB offered research and development grants for innovative ideas and I was fortunate to be approved. In collaboration with a dedicated student leadership team, Futures Public Radio was born. Now, with 50 students in our program, and FPR being embedded into a range of classrooms, our mission is becoming a uniting force in our ISB community:
and real-world, local and global investigations. ISB’s FPR highlights the worth of investigative journalism to build seekers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. We embrace our roles as truth seekers and engaged journalists who work to best serve our community and be a civic force. We aim to question, inform, and unite, celebrating community, service, and high-quality, publishable storytelling and reporting.
Two exciting results of the FPR endeavor have followed: One, for teachers, the FPR workshop and storytelling process provides an active and authentic classroom, linking richly to content and language objectives and standards. Secondly, the positive effect FPR has had on our diverse learner population is exceptional. In providing a safe and authentic publishing platform, where multiple takes and postproduction are part of the craft, EAL and learning support students thrive compared to other public speaking clubs such as theater and MUN. FPR is an empowering outlet where collaborative, media, technological, storytelling, and civic literacy is developed with attention to voice and choice, intentionality, detail, and craft throughout the journalism process for all learner populations.
For creative students looking for unique opportunities to extend, FPR has provided powerful opportunities for high-level development in cinematography, student-led media literacy workshops, leadership, in-depth interviewing skills, and networking grounded in citizenship. Our student journalists take our two mottos to heart: “Everybody has a Story” and “Be the Voice of the Future”.
If you or your school would like to inquire about starting a publicservice media program like FPR on your campus, or if you are intrigued by the possibility of collaborating in becoming an FPR member station, please contact us.
Steve Sostak: SSostak@isb.bj.edu.cn Aaron Moniz: AMoniz@isb.bj.edu.cn Matt Schroeder: MSchroeder@isb.bj.edu.cn Serina Wu: SWu@isb.bj.edu.cn
JUDY Judy, a quiet yet thoughtful, recent EAL intermediate-level arrival, found her voice by embracing her role as the town hall facilitator for the radio station and is now the president of the High School Futures Public Radio club. She has since interviewed up and coming Brooklyn musicians Overcoats and continues to work on campus stories centered on issues such as transitions from MS to HS and stories on the wellness components involved in the school cafeteria. Judy’s happiness, positive energy, engagement, leadership and language development is clearly evident in all of our FPR workshops and her published pieces. EVAN Evan was a student with identified challenges with oral and written expression. He would often spend a considerable amount of time searching for words, which left him unable to respond to questions or to actively participate in class discussions. Though a wonderful kid, his academic self-concept was low because he was quiet and afraid to speak out in front of others. Evan’s experience with Futures Public Radio has helped to strengthen his processing, develop his wordfinding skills, build his spoken confidence, improve his turn around and response time, and allow him to shift from being a behind-thescenes leader to a verbal leader in Futures Public Radio. His confidence and leadership on the technology team, during live broadcasting, and through rich interviews is invaluable. These skills have transferred over into his academic content classes, and in significant growth in standardized measures of academic progress.
SHAWN Futures Public Radio has given Shawn almost everything he is passionate about: Project-based learning, challenging investigations, mastery of cinematography, inspiring non-fiction reading, leadership opportunities, and choice. In more traditional classroom settings, Shawn, while non-disruptive, would often find himself frustrated by the limitations of a more straightforward approach.
Since becoming the FPR Middle School President, Shawn has led media literacy workshops for teachers and students in Beijing and Shanghai. He also produces and facilitates a number of the higher profile stories for FPR, including being the only student TED Teacher Talk presenter at the Middle School Back to School night 2017. Shawn has also produced, presented, and published a number of innovative projects through his work in Futures Academy, a project-based, integrated classroom at ISB.
Curriculum Initiatives >> Integration of the Arts in Early Childhood at Korea International School Jeju By Patricia DeLuca, Kindergarten Teacher
A student-created restaurant during a unit on community helpers.
The arts in early childhood at KISJ are seamlessly integrated within the fabric of the curriculum. Although they have art and music classes as a specials, artistic expression, musical form, and drama are integral forms of learning that are also incorporated into the core subjects of math, science, literacy, and social studies.
Junior kindergarten and kindergarten students at KISJ are in the emergent stages of reading and writing, so art is an essential method for students to show what they know and have learned. Painting the stages of growth from a seed into a tree, using clay to create a threedimensional bear, and/or making a mini model house from recycled paper towel tubes and tissue boxes found from makerspace, are commonly seen at KISJ. Reusable loose parts are often used to create a three-dimensional model of a bridge, made of blocks and plastic straws, or a two-dimensional bouquet of flowers designed with buttons, glass stones, and pattern blocks, which are dismantled and rebuilt over a period of several days. These models can accurately depict what the students have learned, while their English language and writing skills are still developing.
Children build confidence and oral fluency by expressing themselves through song. The majority of children at KISJ are English language learners, so songs can be an unintimidating first step of speaking English. Before they can label the parts of their body, they can sing about their physical features. Silly songs with rhyme, help students to understand the concept of rhyme and build their phonemic awareness skills, which will later aid in their ability to decode. Songs are a rich literacy tool that not only tell basic stories, but also introduce elements of storytelling, which the students will apply in their own writing later on.
Students in early childhood are continuously acting during dramatic play. Most often they are imitating real life, cooking in the kitchen or sorting mail in the post office. A commercially-made prop like a fire fighter uniform or a student-made prop, such as a painted sign naming the hospital, aid their portrayals. These dramas are often student-initiated, which ensures student engagement, lengthens their time practicing the play, and increases the complexity and depth of their imitation. Once during a unit on community places, the students reenacted a fire situation. They donned their fire helmets, drew and cut out flames with red paper, and taped the flames to a pillow. With their paper made fire hoses, they proceeded to take turns putting out the fire. They even rearranged the table and chairs to create a fire house.
Artistic expression, music, and dramatic play are tools that we use at KISJ to provide students with some of their early, yet memorable school experiences and begin their lifelong learning journey. Integrating these tools with the core curriculum such as literacy or social studies, aids in student engagement and enrichment and gives students voice and choices in how they learn.
Watercolor still life.
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Curriculum Initiatives >> “So where’s home?”
By Jennifer Tiefel, MS Art Teacher, Shanghai American School Puxi
door of exploration for our students that has been a pure joy to witness.
SAS Puxi student, Aanya Bhola, working on her painting.
It’s one of the first things that people ask each other when meeting for the first time. For some it’s a question with a straightforward answer. It’s as easy as closing their eyes and thinking about the word, home. A clear picture is painted in their mind of a structure in a specific geographical location. For others, especially those of us who have grown up overseas, it’s a much harder task. This is the case for many of our students in international schools and why it’s a perfect starting place for creative inquiry within the Arts.
We often refer to our students as Third Culture Kids (TCKs), which refers to children who were raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture for a significant part of their developmental years. Most of us have heard of this term before and are aware of at least some of the potential ways that it can affect our students. I’m a TCK, or I guess I’m a TCA, (Third Culture Adult), having been born and raised in the Middle East and Southeast Asia until I was 15 by American parents. As an international school teacher, being a former TCK has given me the ability to empathize to a high degree with my international students. As an artist my convoluted background has definitely made its mark on my style and subject matter, I realize that it can often come across to my audience that I’m appropriating cultural symbols in disingenuous ways, but the truth is that I feel very genuinely connected to them. Similarly, we may assume that we understand where our students are from but after going deeper we may be surprised by what we find.
As an art teacher I endeavor to not only teach my students art skills, techniques and theory but to also help them know themselves better as artists. To do this they must learn to be introspective, vulnerable, and open-minded. Asking questions like “where’s home”? is par for the course of this process. We are ultimately trying to peel back the layers to see who they are, where they’ve been and where they’re going. At Shanghai American School our middle school art program is built on these statements and our 7th grade program focuses on ‘where we’ve been’, and specifically, the very important and complicated question, “where’s home”? This concept has opened a
These 7th grade students explored this line of inquiry by first looking at how other artists have explored and represented their connections with their homes. We looked at Marc Chagall, Romare Bearden and Frida Kahlo last semester and for each artist the students created small practice exercises that mimicked the artists’ style and medium. While analyzing their works through our discussions we kept the focus on how the artists have represented their connections to home, asking questions about how home can be defined differently depending on the personal experience of the artist. For some of the artists we investigated home as defined by their relationships with the people in their lives. For some it was the actual place and the architecture, landscapes, and landmarks therein. For others it was defined through the elements and principles of art in a more symbolic way, using color for example to capture the emotions associated with the concept of home.
Later in the unit the students turned their investigations inward, creating mind maps about their interpretations of home and working to more clearly define what their relationships with the concept of home are based upon. Many of the students are TCK’s, which added to the complexity of the investigation in fantastic ways. The conversations between the students during this part of the assignment allowed empathy to be front and center in our work. The students were listening to each other’s stories, relating to them, putting themselves in the mindset of others and showing their support for each other through constructive critiquing and words of encouragement. After this, the artwork was really just a bonus, as the real learning had already taken place.
The final visualization of this unit came in the form of two-dimensional, mixed-media pieces; using the techniques and styles they practiced with earlier in the unit but using their personal interpretations of home as the subject matter. They also played with the universal symbol of home, a house, by creating fairly uniform structures of houses with plaster and then applying photo transfers of texts and photos to show their individual connections with home. These artworks not only demonstrated skills, techniques and theory, but also communicated important messages to the audience. As so often is the case in art class, some of the quietest, most withdrawn students created the loudest, most eye-catching pieces.
The success of this unit comes not from the medium or techniques used, but the concept behind it. As international school educators we can all dive into this concept of connection to home from different angles. Our student and teacher population is typically transient, our students are usually well traveled, and many come from multicultural households. The pool of potential imagery from this concept is so deep it seems to have no bottom at all. It has been a joy take part in this journey with my students and I look forward to reimagining this line of inquiry in different forms in the years to come, using my students as my guide.
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