Title: Weather Through the Eyes of an Artist
Grade: 3
Inquiry Question: How does weather feel—and how can we represent that through art?
This unit was designed to engage students in an interdisciplinary exploration of the mood and phenomenon of weather through color, light, pattern, and sound. Using colored pencils, liquid watercolor, and transparent materials like tissue paper and cellophane, students created various expressive artworks that reflect the movement and mood of different types of weather—such as sunsets, storms, and drizzle. They listened closely to the sounds of rain—trickles, downpours, thunder—and experimented with mark-making to visually capture those patterns. Students also tested layering transparent materials to explore color mixing with light, noticing how sunlight could refract and blend colors.
Title: Making the Invisible Visible
Grade: 4
Inquiry Question: How can we use art and science to explore the invisible forces around us?
This project highlights the ways students used the inquiry process to imagine the invisible energies around us. Using colored pencils they created a visual vocabulary by combining color, pattern, texture and value to draw the everyday energy buzzing around them. Students then rotated through five hands-on centers, experimenting with how electrical, light, sound energy along with magnetic force could be visualized. Students applied their discoveries in a playful final project to create collaborative drawings of alien creatures responding to a selection of eerie and unusual sounds.
Title: Sound of Healing
Grade: 12+
Inquiry Question: How do artists explore the power of sound?
In this project, students explored sound as a sensory investigation. Inspired by contemporary artist Guadalupe Maravilla, they listened to the sounds of gongs, singing bowls, and other low-frequency vibrations. Through intuitive drawing, collage and painting, students explored how sound vibrations impact our bodies and emotions, creating imaginary landscapes of healing or calm. After this introspective work, students worked collaboratively to build vibrating drawing machines using small motors, batteries and everyday materials. These playful machines came to life, making unexpected marks like squiggly lines, looping circles, and layered patterns, offering students a hands-on way to experience vibration and movement.
Title: Sonic Space Landscape
Inquiry Question: Space: what lies beyond what we can see?
Grade: 5
Our art and science integration project focused on the inquiry question: What lies beyond what we can see? We listened to sounds captured by radio telescopes from various planets and collaboratively translated these unusual sounds into words. This close listening process motivated students to conceptualize the sonic environment as visual soundscapes.
Several centers were set up around the room, each dedicated to a different artistic medium or process. These centers allowed students to explore a variety of art materials and techniques helping them visually interpret the sounds they had been listening to. After this period of experimentation, students carefully selected the art materials that best represented their personal responses to the sounds.
Some students responded by creating imaginary soundscapes using watercolors and oil pastels, while other students used microelectronics and found materials to construct small noise machines generating their own new sounds.
Title: Soundscaping
Grade: 12+
Inquiry Question: How can we use unconventional materials and playful methods to generate freeform artwork inspired by sound?
Our project aimed to introduce students to sound artists, like Max Neuhaus and the diverse ways sound can be used as an art medium and inspire abstract creations. Students experimented with inventive tools such as pipettes and long-handled mark-making tools, enabling full-body movement in response to sound as well as playful ways to express marks using traditional media like oil pastels and watercolors. This approach encouraged spontaneity and intentional play, allowing students to create art without a preconceived plan. Working iteratively, the instructors adapted the lessons, tailoring activities to students' interests while simultaneously exploring the inquiry question. The project was designed specifically for diverse learners, ensuring the final artworks empowered students by positively representing themselves.
Title: Cosmic Wonder
Grade: 5
Inquiry Question: How can exploring stars and the night sky from a personal, cultural, and societal lens help students to make a connection to the vast cosmos?
Students applied their knowledge of stars and the night sky to create artwork that tells personal stories about their connection to the cosmos. Using everyday materials, students designed their own abstract personal constellations. Once the individual constellations were complete, students worked in groups to find new connections with their classmates’ constellations using yarn. Then, they explored indigenous stories and looked at contemporary art about the night sky. Using paper circuitry, students created a visual representation of a constellation with an alternative narrative (rather than the traditional Greek perspective) or told a personal story about themselves related to constellations. For the final project, students combined their knowledge and creative skills to work collaboratively to create a large constellation related to the theme of light pollution. They used their paper circuitry knowledge to illuminate symbols that represent their hopes for the future while making visible hidden connections.
