The Sun and Us

Demographics:  School and Student Background Information

Our school is a magnet college, high school, and middle school (grades 6-12) all wrapped up into one campus with around 1600 students and 100 teachers.  The student population comes from all over the city as a magnet school, from all economic and social backgrounds, but a large percentage of our students comes from the area around the school due to feeder pattern schools.  While the school is quite culturally varied, it is largely Hispanic.  There are 17 athletic programs and 24 extra-curricular offerings.  We have a strong fine arts department with choir, orchestra, band, drama, and studio arts. 

In my Art I classroom I integrate art and core subjects with each lesson. Students get to learn and use a wide variety of art mediums in different ways so that they do not get tired of “just drawing” (as told to me by past students).  In past lessons I have taught watercolor, chalk pastel, and oil pastel techniques while simultaneously teaching about the physical features of planets and moons or the constellations in the sky.  Students also learned about 3D art through Sci-Fi in literature and movies.  We read a novel, watched the movie based on the novel, discovered how a movie creates a world based on a book, and then wrote about and created our own worlds in 3D form. 

Oklahoma 8^th grade Science standards of “Our Place in the Universe” guide this unit for the scientific portion and 8^th grade Art standards for the Art portion.²  The unit will build on the 7^th grade Geography standards about the Sun and solar system, as well as basic knowledge garnered in previous science classes.  By the 8^th grade my students should already have prior knowledge regarding the seasonal effects of the sun on Earth because of tilt, rotation, and revolution, as well as knowledge of atoms and molecules which is important for understanding how stars form and create planets.  However, before we begin, we will review everything we have learned about the sun (this will help activate prior knowledge, as well as catch up students who may honestly not know).  Students often do not realize how much they learn each year and that they build on knowledge from previous years.  In our district kindergarteners learn that the Sun warms our planet and that plants need the sun to grow.  First graders learn about the patterns of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as seasonal patterns of sunrise and sunset.  So, from the very beginning of their education, students are gaining knowledge of the Sun and building on that knowledge each year.  As teachers, we know it is not uncommon for students to “learn” information in one grade and forget it the next year, so that activation of prior knowledge is essential.  Though I will be focusing on 8^th grade Oklahoma science standards, I will use it with some modifications for my other classes in grades 6 through 12, as well.  After all, with the advances in technology and research, some of the things they learned last year may be outdated already!  Other teachers could alter the assignment to easily tie in standards in reading, literature, and writing, as we will be undertaking activities in these areas, but it is not necessary for the purpose of this particular unit, for me.