Integrating Arts into a Science Curriculum: Making Models Three of the easiest ways to integrate arts into science: ● model­making ● observational drawing ● lab style experimentation with materials, processes, or human body (usually physical sciences) Models can mean: ● two dimensional drawings ● 3­d sculptures/ dioramas ● 3­d modeling with bodies (static) ● moving model with bodies (dynamic) ● dance ● a theatrical scene ● a poem ● a story Elevating a basic model­making experience to an art­making experience or engineering experience: There is a difference between having kids make a model of the layers of the earth following your instructions with your materials ­ and having them get to choose and invent how to do it and with what materials ­ when they do the latter, they should be able to explain their reasoning behind their choices ­ e.g. why did you make the lava out of something squishy? Why did you make the core grey? ­ in this, there is opportunity for writing/speaking. There is a difference between having kids simply get out of their chairs and move around like the parts of an atom and actually getting them to create a story and characters that represent how those particles interact with each other. In the second scenario there is creativity and an opportunity for empathy and ELA connections. Furthermore every time the students have to make choices about how to communicate something through art and they encounter problems that need solving, they are using the Engineering Design Process and applying it to art.
Some ideas: ● Challenge kids to make a familiar model but using limited materials ­ perhaps a small shoebox full of paper clips, craft puff balls, toothpicks, popsicle sticks to make a model of a habitat with organisms. Is it static or are you able to move the pieces to demonstrate change in the model? ● Ask kids to brainstorm together to decide on larger scale materials to represent parts of their model ­ work as a class to collect boxes, packing materials and construct something in groups or as a whole class on a much larger scale. ● Have kids work together to make their own bodies into a sculpture that represents the model. Have someone take a photo ­ Ask them to compare the pictures which is most visually interesting? Did one group make a more unique decision of how to show something? next step: re­design so it is more visually interesting ● think about models that move through time…. have kids make a series of movements each taking 4 counts each representing one part of the model and have them string them together into a music phrase ­ bring music in for them, or let them choose music they think works. Ask them to explain their choices. Is there one part of the model they think deserves more time and another less. ● poetry ­ the poet looks for descriptive words to describe each part of the model and uses figurative language to compare it to other ideas, or the poet imagines herself in each phases of the life cycle and considers how it feels from the inside Integrating math with model­making: ● scale/measurement, is their model going to be large or smaller than the actual phenomenon. Can kids measure and appropriately scale their models? ● fractions and proportions ­ the typical textbook version of life cycle model depicts each stage as a similar fraction of the page in a circle. If we think about how much time the creature spends in each phase, is this an accurate way to depict it. Could kids do research to find out how long a butterfly is an egg, a larva, a pupa, an adult and proportion their 2­d model to account for those differences in time? How about in dance or in a scene? How much time is being devoted to each phase?