Rolla
High School
Rolla, MO | Mrs. Engelbrecht
10th-12th Grades
Topics: Constellations, galaxies, and how we connect to our night sky.
Summary: Students participated in activities using IPads to find information, facts and visuals of celestial objects, space, and the universe. Often students made personal connections relative to their proximity to the universe in order to produce their final art work.
Objective
1. Use study games to practice and learn vocabulary terms;
2. Produce thumbnail sketches exploring ideas and recording information of what we might see in the night sky;
3. Select a medium that can be painted, drawn or attached to canvas in order to create their “Night Sky” project.
Materials: Canvas. Medium could be paint, paper, hot glue gun, transparency paper, and other fabrics
Steps to setting up and preparing
1. Games and research to prepare knowledge of the subject;
2. Sketchbook activities to build out of this world ideas;
3. Studio time to create the projects.
Directions
Step 1: Use the IPad in the classroom to gain knowledge of astronomy.
Possible resources for activities: Quizlet, IMovie, Popplet, Google Images, Google Doc
Step 2: Create thumbnail sketches exploring out of this world ideas.
Step 3: Familiarize students with the requirements of the Franklin Institute so they may explore media choices.
Step 4: Allow students the opportunity to decide if they would like to work individually or in a group. Set up the norms for the group work.
Step 5: Provide ample studio time to create the art work.
Step 6: Photograph the artwork and provide an artist’s statement posting the art on Artsonia.com.
Step 7: Prepare the artwork for display in the school building.
Evaluation
1. How does this assignment fit into your States common core curriculum standards?
Strand 6: composition and structure of the universe and the motion of the objects within it.
2. Did you and your students enjoy working on this assignment?
Yes, my students enjoyed the focus of this theme and the exploration of astronomy. They enjoyed making personal references to the subject matter. Our school community has also rallied for these artworks. Our school superintendent has even asked to display one in his office.
3. Do you see any room for improvement?
This is my first year to approach this and I was very impressed with communications, theme, requirements and the time mainly in which to produce the works.