Learning science and social studies through art...

When learning about ecology, economics, consumerism, and sustainability, will students have a deeper more enduring understanding if we weave that learning through fine arts? This is one of our inquiry questions for our ArtsSmarts grant project this year. I completely believe that students learn more deeply when we tie their learning into fine arts, but this year we are putting this notion to the test. This is our biggest ArtsSmarts project to date, and it involves numerous artists, experts and agencies. In short, our multidisciplinary project involves creating a musical that is loosely based on the Dr. Seuss book the Lorax. It will feature original songs that are written, composed, and performed by our students in collaboration with the artists. As well, students will work with Artist Mike Merlin to collaboratively choreograph original dances to accompany the songs. We have also undertaken a mural that is currently in progress to be the backdrop and our lasting message.


We started this project in January by front-end loading the curricular outcomes for each grade. The grade seven students in my class, known as "the ecologists," have been learning about ecosystems and sustainability, with a specific focus on the Boreal Forest Biome. For the grade eight students, known as "the developers," this project builds from the Student Action for a Sustainable Future work that we did last year and moves into economics and consumption. Our goal was to try and cover the content quickly, and then tie the learning into art representations, student reflections, and a researched persuasive essay.

In order to move quickly through the content, I relied on the textbook to read through and discuss topics with students. We also followed up a lot of that learning with videos, reflections, and art. To be honest, that approach didn't work well. For some students, taking in vast amounts of information through reading and discussing works well, but for many I found that they just didn't connect well to the information. Was it the style of teaching and learning or the content? I'm not sure, but if I could go back and do the front-end loading again, I would approach it differently. However, the goal of the front-end loading was to give students a solid base to draw from when it came to writing songs and creating the play. I thought that the learning would drive the creations, but now I anticipate that the creation will drive the learning, and I'm excited to see that unfold.

During February we connected with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society. They came and presented concepts to the students about waste management, reduction of waste, and recycling old materials into new materials. They helped us to get thinking about a new waste reduction campaign that we will run at our school. Last year, as part of our Student Action for Sustainable Future, my class, who are now in grade eight, focused on waste reduction. We conducted a waste audit and then worked hard to make our current recycling and compost program. This year both grades wanted to do further work with waste reduction and have just started to audit the amount of waste. The grade eights plan to focus on lights and power usage, and the grade sevens want to support that work, but also branch out into paper waste. As the current recyclers, they see a lot of paper waste. I think this is great because it ties nicely into the concept of trees and having healthy forests.

Boreal Forest expert and photographer John Murray spent a half day with each class. His presentation was fascinating and engaging, and the students asked so many great questions and were so captivated. John donated most of his time to us, and we really appreciate that gift. I could write a whole blog post about the things he told us about mushrooms and trees and their symbiotic relationship. Did you know that some mushrooms use their long roots to bring nutrients to a tree so that it can be stronger and healthier? I'm hoping that John attends our show as he has graciously agreed to let us raffle one of his amazing owl photographs.

In February we started to work with Artists Elizabeth Bekolay and Jordan Schultz. If you've ever been out to Beaver Creek you may have met Elizabeth. Currently both Artists work at Brightwater Science and Environmental Centre. Elizabeth and Jordan create music together that they have dubbed gypsy rap. One of their songs plays throughout the ArtsSmarts documentary that was created during our project last year. Over the past five weeks they have met with students in small groups to create the  music for our play. I thought that this part would flow more easily, but song writing is difficult and many of our students are hesitant to share their ideas. After several sessions where we struggled to draw ideas out of the children, it occurred to me that we forgot to play. Last year and the year before we always warmed the students up by playing drama and word games. Kids have to feel safe to take risks and at this age. Sharing your ideas or your opinion is a huge risk: people might laugh at you or think your ideas are dumb. At the start of each session we've created a circle and play silly drama and word games. Once we see that they are forgetting to feel self conscious and are loosening up, we move into song writing mode. The songs are almost complete and next week we will begin the task of learning and memorizing them. What I love about these songs is that they are melodic and mix with rap. The words are carefully chosen and have a profound message. I am pretty excited about the songs. I think the rap battle, which I'm already finding to be an ear worm, is going to be epic.

We've also started our dance work with Artist Mike Merlin. Mike is also a musician so he has been helping Elizabeth and Jordan lay down a beat for specific songs. He has been meeting with groups of students to start creating the numerous dances that we will need to accompany each song. This work has only just begun, but I know with his gifts and talents, Mike will have our students doing amazing work with dance in no time.

Finally, I have to tell you about the mural. It's the work that has progressed the quickest and is the closest to completion. We have worked with several artists to collaboratively create the most amazing student mural I have every seen. Our artists include: Kevin Wesequate, Lesley Kerpan, Alex Semenoff, and Nicole Paul. The artists have brought their own design and style to the mural, and have taught the students so many great painting techniques and skills. I do believe that we have students who would spend the entire day painting on the mural if we let them. The concept for mural itself was inspired by Dr. Seuss, Ted Harrison, and The Beehive Design Collective. Many minds and many hours have gone into discussing what this piece should represent and what it could look like. Briefly, the mural moves from pre-development, into development, and then towards sustainable living. It will be available for public viewing on Monday, March 9th at the Mendel Art Gallery in the auditorium. I plan to write another blog post on the progression of the mural and the work that has gone into it in another blog post on the visual art component of this project. In that post I will discuss the work we did with the Mendel Art Gallery and explain the show that we have put together.

After working with Kevin Wesequate and seeing his latest work, students were inspired to zentangle the trees.

The destruction begins - mining the earth and cutting the trees to make our "thneed" the snark.

One of the students added one of the early versions of a wind turbine.

Smogulous smoke rises out of the numerous buildings

Grade 8 student painting a flower

Alex, Nicole, and Lesley discuss the concept

Student graffiti for the side of a building

This project would not be possible without the funding provided through the ArtsSmarts program funded by:

With additional financial support from Loraas Recycling.