Project/Unit Description/Expedition:
Your new planet has passed Earth’s tests for a sustainable life- that means it is time for people to start moving to your planet from Earth! Before the spaceship of people arrive, you need to create a way for them to get around your planet. Just like we have cars, buses, trains and planes here on Earth, your planet needs to give people the ability to get around! Your MISSION is to create a new vehicle for your planet!
Today, students will be introduced to their new project that will continue for the rest of the semester. We will be discussing different modes of transportation and how that aspect of movement will fit into the new world the students created for their last piece!
Essential Understanding (s):
Inquiry/Learning Target:
Students will create a sculpture based on the design they created last class, using the recyclable materials and found objects provided.
Key Concepts:
Skills:
Art Focus:
Students will use their inspiration and designs from the previous class period to create a sculpture of a transportation vehicle for the planet they invented.
Literacy Focus:
Vocabulary:
Three Dimensional
Transportation (and how it compares to Earth’s transportation)
Form (3D) vs. Shape (2D)
Functionality (Does it actually work? How will it work in your world?)
Knowing and understanding the vocabulary above, written and verbal activities will be accomplished during class to show the students understanding of each concept and their expected outcome.
Documentation:
Today we started building our vehicle sculptures! We used recyclable objects, hot glue, duct tape, and a wide variety of found objects. Here is what the process looked like at each table!
Your new planet has passed Earth’s tests for a sustainable life- that means it is time for people to start moving to your planet from Earth! Before the spaceship of people arrive, you need to create a way for them to get around your planet. Just like we have cars, buses, trains and planes here on Earth, your planet needs to give people the ability to get around! Your MISSION is to create a new vehicle for your planet!
Today, students will be introduced to their new project that will continue for the rest of the semester. We will be discussing different modes of transportation and how that aspect of movement will fit into the new world the students created for their last piece!
Essential Understanding (s):
- Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media, and art-making approaches
Inquiry/Learning Target:
Students will create a sculpture based on the design they created last class, using the recyclable materials and found objects provided.
Key Concepts:
- Form
- Functionality
Skills:
- Generating or assessing solutions
- Comparing analogous situations: transferring insights to new contexts
Art Focus:
Students will use their inspiration and designs from the previous class period to create a sculpture of a transportation vehicle for the planet they invented.
Literacy Focus:
Vocabulary:
Three Dimensional
Transportation (and how it compares to Earth’s transportation)
Form (3D) vs. Shape (2D)
Functionality (Does it actually work? How will it work in your world?)
Knowing and understanding the vocabulary above, written and verbal activities will be accomplished during class to show the students understanding of each concept and their expected outcome.
Documentation:
Today we started building our vehicle sculptures! We used recyclable objects, hot glue, duct tape, and a wide variety of found objects. Here is what the process looked like at each table!
This student was making a carriage as her world's transportation . It would be pulled by the giant cats that live in her world. At the point of the first picture, she wasn't sure how she wanted to develop it. We talked about where the people would ride and she decided that they would need a seat. When she made a seat out of the same kind of clear plastic as the carriage, I mentioned that it was kind of difficult to see or tell what it was. She came up with the idea of coating it in a different color or material to make it stand out, and used the flowery fabric that you can see in the second picture. She also added the grainy turquoise texture on the floor of the carriage to make it "look more colorful." Her problem solving process demonstrated that she was expressing herself, as well as thinking through multiple possible solutions, and persisting in her development of the final sculpture. |
On the right and below is a demonstration of learning that extends beyond the art classroom. Student A was not sure of how to cover his vehicle in the yellow felt sheet that he wanted to use, or how to make legs for it to walk with. He asked me for help and I pushed him to try a few things on his own first or ask a peer for suggestions (this was to encourage self-initiated and collaborative learning instead of teacher dependency). Student B at his table immediately began bouncing suggestions off of him, and offering to share materials that he had found. Soon, they had come up with optimal solutions, leading to the development shown here. The ability to collaborate and be open to other people's input is crucial not only in art but in all of life.
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The transportation sculpture shown here is another chariot, made by a student at the same table as the other chariot shown earlier. Despite the fact that the students at this table drew heavy inspiration from each other, each of their sculptures was unique. This student found a pair of broken sunglasses in the found objects box. She used the lenses as windows; she was not originally planning on having windows, but she was inspired by this found artistic material and demonstrated flexibility in her art-making. Her priority was on creativity and aesthetic value, instead of sticking to a firm plan, which was good to see. |
This student made a large car-like vehicle. He explained that "the back rolls on these wheels and the front just floats." Later, he found the large black spring shown in the second picture. Like the student with the sunglasses, he placed precedence on the use of fascinating materials over firmly following the original plan and design.
Like most other students today, each new artistic material that he came across inspired him to add new, original functions to his transportation sculpture. His spring became representative of a coiled electric power source, and the map in front of it represented a "map that always shows where you want to go." A lot of artistic learning occurred in this manner today. As students experimented with a plethora of exciting new forms and materials, they kept pushing themselves and each other to try new things and invent original ideas. Another example is shown in the picture below, where another student experiments with a steel scrubbing pad. He found this material fascinating, and spent a lot of time learning about its kinetic properties, how it interacted with other materials, and how its shape changed when it was in motion. |
It was awesome to see how this student took initiative and really pushed the boundaries of this project. She brought in her own materials to work with, such as bicycle gears and other metal rings. When she asked, we told her it would be okay for her to use them as long as she was okay with having to take her sculpture apart if she ever wanted those individual pieces for anything else in the future. She said that she wanted have her sculpture look "really nice, like the examples we looked at last time." She came up with a very unique, aesthetically pleasing way to combine these materials into a sculptural form that also fit her intended function, as described in this video.
Overall it was a messy but exciting day filled with great learning, and it will be cool to see how these sculptures develop next class!
Overall it was a messy but exciting day filled with great learning, and it will be cool to see how these sculptures develop next class!