Digital Commons Network^™

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …

Here—There, Glikeriya Shotanova

Masters Theses

Here—there explores the nature and ways of gathering, proposing an alternative path to organizing a cultural center. Divided into three acts (Act One: There, Act Two: Here, and Act Three: Together), it touches on the topics of collective knowledge and the importance of its accessibility to the local communities. How do we organize communities in a way that operates as a body, and how do we use industrial spaces as a bridge between knowledge and those who carry the knowledge? Due to alienation in societies, the decentralization of creative communities, and the inaccessibility of real estate to younger generations, there …

Beyond The White Box: Building Alternative Art Spaces For The Black Community, Elijah Trice

Masters Theses

BASED ON THE SYSTEMIC BIASES AND LACK OF SUPPORT FOR BLACK ARTISTS & DESIGNERS IN THE PRIMARY ART MARKET, THIS STIGMA DISCOURAGES BLACK AND BROWN COMMUNITIES FROM PURSUING A CAREER IN THE CREATIVE ARTS. MY GOAL IS TO UNDERSTAND THE UNDERLYING ISSUES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THIS DISPARITY, BY ANALYZING THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF BALTIMORE CITY AS A CASE STUDY.

Physical To Virtual: A Model For Future Virtual Classroom Environments, Stephen J. Fink

Masters Theses

Virtual reality is a technology that has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century with increasing applications within business, entertainment, and educational applications. As virtual reality technologies continue to develops and markets expand, the world may see an increased demand for virtual classrooms: virtual environments (VEs) that students may access through immersive virtual reality technologies to receive guided instruction, conduct simulations, or perform tasks typical in a classroom setting. While many studies document how virtual reality is beneficial to educational processes, there is little discussion on how virtual environments should be architecturally designed. Thus one may hypothesize that …

Scripting Allographs, June Shin

Masters Theses

Scripting Allographs* examines typographic principles and their pervasive impact on ways of seeing and making through design. This body of work demonstrates the many faces of typography and type design and the way they inform allographic thinking. It employs type as the primary tool and medium for scripting possibilities, embracing their differences, idiosyncrasies, and imperfections. Beginning with a focus on close observation of small details and ending with an approach that invites and celebrates variability, this thesis offers a glimpse into a design practice from the lens of a typographer, type designer, and educator.

Fostering The Efficacious Adolescent Artist, Regina Beltowski

Masters Theses

Low self-esteem and insecurity is common among adolescents. In the secondary-school art room, students often stop engaging in art practice, believing that they lack talent, when the truth is that they lack specific skills. Students who are fortunate to have teachers who help them develop their skills experience a boost in feelings of self-efficacy, and often reengage with art production. This thesis project focuses on strengthening students’ self-efficacy in the visual arts at the secondary level. Clarifying the differences between related terms – self-esteem, self-concept, and perceived control – I focus on self-efficacy as a characteristic that plays a significant …

Choice--‐Based Art: Students Who Create, Not Replicate, Hillary K. Moczerad

Masters Theses

The problem that I researched in today’s art education world is how to teach our art students to be problem solving, confident, independent thinkers. It seems that in a classroom that is supposed to be full of innovation and creativity, it is currently falling flat. Through research, I discovered a teaching methodology called Choice-­‐Based Art that claims to eliminate these problems in the art room through student-­‐directed learning and choice while still delivering art curriculum. In order to test these theories, I aligned my classroom with the demands of the methodology and planned a field test with two groups of …

Creative Concentrations: A Secondary Design Curriculum, Linnea Roberta Gustafson

Masters Theses

Design education, as distinct from art education, has been overlooked as an area of student learning, creative expression, and career potential. This thesis explores the benefits of design education for students at the secondary level, when identities are being formed and areas of future study and work are considered. Guided by the newly published National Core Arts Standards, this paper provides a model design curriculum that introduces secondary students to a design-oriented view of the world, explores design principles through real-world applications, and calls attention to professional career options.

All lessons in the curriculum encourage creative approaches to solving design …