Unit Overview
Artists and educators are always looking for ways to maximize the learning potential of their students while keeping the learning meaningful and interesting. It is honestly easier to do this when we, as educators, are modeling the same behavior and habits in the way that we create and the ways in which we work. We see this in other fields and especially in the field of medicine where modeling and apprenticeship techniques are applied so intently. Although written tests and other forms of assessment are important, doctors and nurses don’t learn their trade by taking tests as much as they learn by the actual doing of the tasks and by watching established professionals model the behavior for them.9 In our case, whether the learner is an educator or student (and often is both), it is important to realize that there is a symbiotic relationship to connecting so much of what we learn to another thing that reminds them of or connects them to the desired topic or skill to be learned. By comparing the impact of the arts on science and the sciences on art, we can find deeper meaning as well as making the learning more impactful and memorable. There is honestly so much crossover that already happens and capitalizing on that and refining those connections can be so meaningful for everyone involved.
In this unit, we will be exploring how the sciences have used the arts (most specifically visual art) as a vehicle for explaining and visualizing their work. Even the simplest or broken down diagram needs basic artistic skills. What parts do you want to ‘stick out’ the most? How can you use color theory to show your point more accurately? What about a botanical artist or the artists that documented microscopic insects before the advent of meaningful microscopic photography? Who documented the stars and planets that we were seeing through telescopes before the technology of photography caught up?
We will be taking approximately the first six to eight weeks of school to work our way through this unit. The unit will consist of four to six shorter activities that will lead up to a final project where the students will draw from those activities to create their final work of art. Students will be keeping a journal and also will be able to use their journal to inform and inspire the direction of their final project.
Although most of my students have had practice journaling through various other projects, we will be reviewing the journaling process along with learning new, specified, and refined writing and drawing skills along the way. Students will be working over the six to eight-week period to create, reflect upon, and revise their journals and entries as we go. Although we will be following a strict framework, it is one that will allow a great deal of artistic freedom for the students (and myself) inside that frame. Students will be journaling or taking notes in their journals during at least part of every class for those first six to eight weeks of school. If everything goes well, we will most likely end up journaling and discussing our observations at the beginning of every class over the entirety of the unit.
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