Art, Design, and Biology

Lesson Plans with Strategies and Objectives

Lesson Plan 1 : Make a Classroom Terrarium and Observational Drawings

Summary:

A mossarium is a specialized word for a container that is designed to create a suitable environment for growing and displaying mosses.⁵² It is similar to a terrarium or vivarium, but it differs in that it is specifically focused on providing optimal conditions for moss growth. I recommend using aquatic species of moss over terrestrial in terrariums because there is a broader rang suitable for this specialized environment. It is important to check the list of invasive species for your region when selecting aquatic mosses for display. Also make sure to dispose of mosses in a safe way to avoid negatively affecting the local waterways with invasive species.

Procedures:

1. Students will analyze the parts of the picture plane in Joseph Noel Paton’s Study from Nature, Inveruglas.
2. Students will observe the creation of a terrarium with a classroom demonstration by the instructor and learn The Rule of Thirds to think about composition of the display.
3. Students will be introduced to the names of the terrestrial mosses such in the classroom terrarium. Students will learn the difference between aquatic and terrestrial mosses. Then students will learn the names of three common terrestrial mosses that can be found in New Haven.
4. Students will draw an example of one of the aquatic mosses in their commonplace books.
5. Students will take out a sample of a terrestrial their specimen to dissect with gloves to learn about its biology and take notes on similarities and differences they notice to aquatic mosses they learned about prior.
6. In the classroom students will use foldscopes to observe the external characteristics of their collected moss specimens.
7. Students will draw their specimen from observation using the foldscopes in their commonplace books and write observations next to their artworks.

Evaluation:

Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in traditional or new media. (VA:Cr1.1.8a)

Extension:

Visualize and hypothesize to generate plans for ideas and directions for creating art and design that can affect social change. Students can also create ceramic figures for the terrarium display in the classroom. (VA:Cr1.1.IIIa)

Lesson Plan 2: Creating Cyanotypes of Mosses

Summary:

Photography was initially thought of as a form of photogenic drawing.⁵³ This lesson is inspired by the Nineteenth-century Botanist Anna Atkins who was a prolific pioneer of cyanotype prints and daughter of a famous scientist. Cyanotypes were invented by a friend of her father named Sir John Herschel in 1842.⁵⁴ Atkins used cyanotypes as an alternative to drawing for botanical studies.⁵⁵ Students will make cyanotypes on pretreated paper of moss. Students will put their cyanotypes into artist commonplace books in a similar way to how Atkins’s contemporaries bound her cyanotypes into book series after she sent them.⁵⁶ Atkins was fascinated by a wide variety of natural forms and experimented with drawing and photographic technologies.⁵⁷

Procedures:

1. Students will observe the aquatic mosses in the classroom mossarium and paint watercolors in their commonplace books.
2. Students will learn to draw mosses using the graphic style inspired by the comic book The Swamp Thing and learn about the evolution of mosses to their environments.
3. Students will be introduced to the photographic processes by creating cyanotypes of mosses using pretreated paper and sunlight and put them in their commonplace books.

Evaluation:

Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge in the process of artmaking or designing. (VA:Cr2.1.8a)

Extension:

Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept. Students may choose to create figures covered in moss and/or letters illuminated with illustrations of moss. (VA:Cr2.1.IIIa)

Lesson Plan 3: Field Trip Photographs of Terrestrial Mosses

Summary:

Students will collect examples of moss by taking polaroid photos during a field trip.

Procedures:

1. Students will learn names of three common mosses that can be found in New Haven, Connecticut which are Polytrichum commune, Hypnum and Leucobryum glaucum.
2. Students will discuss the expectations of collection practices before the field trip to learn how safely engage with the mosses without disturbing the natural environment.
3. Students will go one a field trip to Sleeping Giant State Park and take polaroid photos of moss. Students will take photographs instead of collecting physical specimens to protect the natural environment while still appreciating it with the art process of photography.

Evaluation:

Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations. (VA:Cr2.3.8a)

Extension:

Students can create small ceramic figures for their terrariums.

Demonstrate in works of art or design how visual and material culture defines, shapes, enhances, inhibits, and/or empowers people's lives. (VA:Cr2.3.IIIa)