STEAM Collaboration- Periodic Table Sculpture

BMS students are so excited to begin this new STEAM-infused project happening this quarter! 

Overview of the project-

During Q2 and Q3, some STEAM classes (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) are planning a multi-grade, multi-subject Periodic Table sculpture project that will tie in with a mural being planned in the media center. The Periodic Table Sculpture will be a permanent piece of art for our building.

Students in 7th grade tech and science as well as 8th grade science and art students are all going to invest in parts of the planning, research and/or creation of the table sculpture.

In order to kick this off this multi-grade, multi-subject collaborative project, 7th and 8th grade students will be watching Nova's Hunting the Elements documentary this Friday afternoon.

Today in 8th grade art class, we are matching the 10 groups of the periodic table to our 10 material choices. Mirror, leather, granite, glass tile, shiny and burnished metal, Plexiglass, stone tile and two wood species will make up our giant table of elements sculpture. We'll be posting the results of the material survey soon. 

Collaboration artwork: 94 7th graders, a three yr. old and Mrs. Hare

Here it is! The finished piece! What started as an experiment of 7th graders rolling paper tubes turned into a pretty cool collaboration 3D assemblage. 

We spent a few spare minutes a couple of weeks ago rolling strips of paper into tubes. Each student rolled an average of 10 in the time given. We weren't really sure what we would do with them all but good thing we made so many! Assembling them all together took Mrs. Hare and her three-year-old son about 2 1/2 hours (Emerson helped dip them in glue).  A little glitter spray and rhinestones complete the "super nova" look. This piece is going to be displayed at the district art show during the month of March. Come check it out at the Becker Public Library! 

Amate bark painting in 7th grade

Here is the start of our first painting project in 7th grade. Our inspiration comes from the Amate bark paintings of Mexico. These artworks combine vibrant colors with detailed black outlining on a pounded fig-bark background. Check out this youtube video showing the process of an Amate artwork.

We began this lesson by sketching three different types of traditional landscapes: a mountain-scape, a seascape and a desert-scape (see slides posted below). We focused on creating three distinct areas by showing the foreground, middle ground and background. By making sure our landscape details progressively got smaller as they went back into space, we created depth and perspective.

Once we had a good understanding of how to create a realistic landscape, we decided to switch it up a bit! Instead of creating depth, we "stacked" our images to create a layered look and added a continuous winding road to add unity and movement to our work. These paintings will also use color theory to appear three-dimensional when viewed through 3D glasses.

Check back soon to see the finished paintings!