Art Education Commons^™

Practical Art Projects Related To Children’S Picture Books About Ecology, Jennifer L. Hageman, Natalia Martín Martín, Sarah E. Montgomery, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This study presents art projects that reinforce scientific content presented in children’s picture books about ecology. Ten K-6 students from varying socioeconomic classes, and different cultural and language backgrounds from the United States and Spain participated. Next Generation Science Standards were identified and addressed in these art projects. Students’ understanding and engagement were evaluated through teacher observations, photographs, and a student attitude survey. Upper- and lower-elementary students evidenced increased understanding of environmental issues, and high level of enjoyment and engagement through these art projects integrated with science content. Researchers encourage educators to incorporate picture books and art in science lessons …

Editorial: Developing Creativity Through Stem Subjects Integrated With The Arts, Ksenia Zhbanova

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This issue of the Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions is focused on creativity - one of the most highly-desirable 21^st Century skills on personal and global levels. Time, pedagogical knowledge, and resource constraints limit the number of opportunities for teachers to develop creativity in students. In this editorial, creativity development steps and strategies are illuminated along with specific roles of STEM subjects and the arts in development of student creativity. The processes of creativity development used in STEM and the arts are compared to each other and to the non-subject-specific creative process model of Root-Bernstein and Root- …

Brookings, South Dakota: Learning Lab, Doriane Paso

Empowering Research for Educators

The following paper explores the possibilities of education in one local setting using both an insider and outsider perspective. Education is a part of society, and as society changes, why should education not change with it?

Alexa?: Possibilities Of Voice Assistant Technology And Artificial Intelligence In The Classroom, Patrick D. Hales, Melissa Anderson, Tonya Christianson, Amber Gaspar, Billi Jo Meyer, Beth Nelson, Krista Shilvock, Mary Steinmetz, Makenzi Timmons, Michelle Vande Weerd

Empowering Research for Educators

The following paper represents the combined effort of 10 educators exploring the experience and use of voice assistant technology in classrooms. This reflection and study of our classrooms looks to better understand both our use of technology and students’ use of technology in very specific ways. Is there a place for voice assistant technology in our classrooms? What benefits are there? What obstacles exist? We tell our stories and experiences here with the intent to provide context and continue the discussion among more of our colleagues.

From Assertion To Conversion: Classroom Management For 21st Century Teachers, Benjamin Halbkat

Empowering Research for Educators

The following position paper provides a new teacher's perspective on modern classroom management. Where is there room for improvement? What might the future hold?

High School Biology Preparation: Do Students Feel They Have Been Adequately Prepared For Introductory College Biology?, Mara Neitzel

Empowering Research for Educators

The purpose of this study was to determine how well students are being prepared in high school for introductory college biology courses. Specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows: To gain a better understanding about how well students feel they have been prepared for college science classes based on their high school education, to gain insight on how college preparation in high school impacts students’ self-confidence, and to determine if the accessibility of advanced education courses is influenced by the size of a high school. A mixed methods survey was distributed to freshman in the fall semester of …

In Support Of The Tinker V. Des Moines Decision, Matthew Olson

Empowering Research for Educators

The following position outlines a case for the Tinker v. Des Moines decision, including a historical and modern perspective. With freedom of speech and protest being a regular part of the discussion about U.S. society and schools, now is a good time to look back.

“Learning The Ropes”: Pre-Service Arts Teachers Navigating The Extracurricular Terrain, Christina C. Gray, Geoffrey M. Lowe

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Arts teachers undertake a multitude of extracurricular activities. Yet, while these activities consume considerable time and require specific expertise, little attention is afforded to developing these skills and expertise during pre-service training. This article presents findings from a study into the value of a pre-service teacher production as a form of professional development, from both the technical and personal development perspectives. Thirty pre-service secondary Arts teachers participated in the production. Through focus-group interviews, participants indicated the benefits of building technical understanding as well as personal benefits of engaging in an ensemble experience. All spoke of the potential transferability of what …

Developing Children’S Physical Literacy: How Well Prepared Are Prospective Teachers?, Judith Dinham, Paul Williams

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While the known health impacts of sedentary lifestyles have focused attention on children’s outdoor activity, the development of their physical literacy – the physiological, social, cultural, cognitive, expressive, and psychological dimensions of their physicality – is much less in focus.

Developing children’s physical literacy is embedded in the Early Years Learning Framework and Primary curriculum: Health and Physical Education, and the performing arts subjects within The Arts. This study asks “How well prepared are pre-service teachers to implement a program that contributes to developing children’s physical literacy?”

This mixed methods study includes an environmental scan of BEd courses at 12 …

Intergenerational Narratives: The Personal Is Professional, Jodi Kushins, Amy B. Snider

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

What began as a teacher-student relationship between educators Amy Brook Snider and Jodi Kushins has developed into a friendship and working partnership. At first, they did not consider their continuing long-distance connection as intergenerational. They shared experiences and exchanged ideas oblivious to the great difference in their ages. But as online tools, research, and communication emerged as a central focus of Jodi’s life and teaching, they became aware that this development might lead to an intergenerational digital divide between them. In order to explore their different responses to what has been called screen culture, they brought back their puppet alter …

Arts Integration Into Elementary Science: Force And Motion And Natural Disasters, Eric C. Ooms, Tabitha M. Wu, Ashley R. Kokemuller, Sarah E. Montgomery, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This study explored the effect of arts integration into science during an instructional unit on force and motion and one addressing natural weather disasters. Seventy-eight elementary students in four classrooms (grade 5, grade 4, and two at grade 3) participated in the study. This study assessed content retention, student-made products (rollercoasters and hurricane shelters), and student attitudes. All students in each classroom experienced the two units of instruction, one unit in the experimental condition of arts integration and one unit in the control condition without arts integration. Both conditions involved students in constructing models of given materials. Each unit consisted …

Second Grade Students Learn About Civil Engineers And Erosion, Andrea Earline Anderson, Jessica A. Meier

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The integration of art into curricula focused on teaching science is a new perspective in education designed to reach a broader range of students. The current study examined the process of second-grade students participating in science and art activities through qualitative content analysis. The subjects of science and art were not taught to the students separately, rather, students engaged in both subjects simultaneously, in an integrated manner. Participants were 23 second-grade students (11 female and 12 male; age range 7 to 8 years) who were learning about erosion through sketching and creative construction and the work of civil engineers through …

Ecosystem Shake Up: An Environmental Change Adaptation Project, Hannah E. Morgan, Dana Atwood-Blaine, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article reports an intriguing diorama project for third grade elementary students (ages 8-9 years). Students worked as partners to create dioramas of given ecosystems made in pizza boxes. Then, students rolled a die to determine a change in some environmental factor that affected the ecosystem. The students discussed how this change affected the ecosystem and made a second part of their diorama showing the ecosystem after the change. Finally, students made class presentations concerning their dioramas and ideas. A rubric for assessing the projects is included. Results of this science project indicate that students became deeply engrossed in …

Exploring The Physics Of Sound With Steam-Azing Third Graders, Page L. Foss, Kyrie D. Borsay

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article was based on a lesson conducted with third graders from an elementary school in the Midwest who were studying concepts about sound. The lesson activities address Next Generation Science Standards that include engineering concepts, along with integrating activities that support National Core Arts Standards. The students created instruments that made music but that were not the standard string, percussion or wind orchestral instruments that they had previously studied: string, percussion, or wind. Their instruments made of recycled materials included drum and shaker combinations, animal-shaped instruments, and instruments that combined three or more instruments.

Science Through Art: Motivating Gifted And Talented Students, Ksenia Zhbanova

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Gifted and talented students have unique characteristics and needs. Arts Integration is an effective differentiation strategy that helps meeting these students’ needs. STEM subjects are easily and organically integrated with the Arts because scientific and artistic inquiry are very similar. This practical article describes an arts-integrated project that provided the gifted and talented participants with an increased level of challenge, an opportunity for self-expression and for building social skills, amplified motivation, and a chance to deepen and demonstrate their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, social studies and English Language Arts. In this project, identified gifted students completed figural transformations …

Editorial: Arts Integration Allows Students The Opportunity To Be Original, Ksenia S. Zhbanova, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This editorial explores the other six articles in this issue 2 of volume 3 of the Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions to examine how originality is displayed and supported by art projects. Originality, is a quality or a characteristic of an idea, approach or product. Originality can be defined as newness or novelty. To be classified as original, an idea must be new. It does not have to have a utilitarian value, which is a requirement for an idea to be categorized as creative. Helping students develop originality is important because it allows the freedom to make any …

Reflective Documentation As A Movement Potential: Two Digital Platforms Building A Professional Learning Community, John Taylor, Defne Erdur

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Creating dance and training dancers is a collaborative and co-creative process, and teaching has a central role in the co-creative artistic processes. Yet dance teachers, whether free-lance or working in an institution, often develop and maintain their physical teaching practice in isolation. Additionally, because of the ephemeral nature of dance and the relational nature of dance education, these practices usually do not end up being recorded or documented as a body of knowledge. In the face of such a reality the online database IDOCDE.net provides a platform for the development and maintenance of an inclusive professional learning community through a …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives On How The Use Of Toon Comic Books During Guided Reading Influenced Learning By Struggling Readers, Ewa Mcgrail, Alicja Rieger, Gina M. Doepker, Samantha Mcgeorge

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

The study presented in this article examines the use of comic books, specifically the TOON comic books during guided reading instruction. The instruction was provided to struggling readers by the Literacy Center at a comprehensive university in southeastern United States. What most pre-service teachers in this study agreed upon was that comic books served as an effective tool for getting their students interested in reading. Reading comic books with tutors as partners in conversation with the struggling readers in this study was also a powerful medium for facilitating students’ literacy skills development, particularly in the areas of reading fluency and …

Exploring Possible Humanoids On Mars: A Lesson Designed For Twice-Exceptional Gifted Students, Younis Al-Hassan, Marie Adebiyi, Shehreen Iqtadar, Dana L. Atwood-Blaine

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article presents a classroom-tested pedagogical plan to assist instructors in teaching thinking skills to gifted students with disabilities in the context of science. The lesson, which focused on using Edward de Bono thinking skills to explore humanoid images that appear in NASA photos, provided accommodations for students with hearing impairment, along with disabilities associated with short and long-term memory. The instructional design team presented the arts-integrated activity of drawing scenes showing possible ways the anomalies could have been generated, and an interactive electronic game using iPads that asked participants to gather needed items for a trip to Mars. …

Faces On Mars Lesson: Incorporating Art, Thinking Skills, And Disability Differentiation Strategies For Twice-Exceptional Gifted Students, Marine Pepanyan, Mike Fisher, Audrey Wallican-Green

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article provides an example art-integrated lesson designed to serve gifted students with the exceptionalities of deficits in executive functioning and in impulse control. The lesson used the mysterious science problem of possible life on Mars as evidenced by anomalous faces in NASA photographs as a stimulus for practice in processing information through three Edward de Bono CoRT Thinking Skills. This lesson demonstrated differentiating instruction for gifted students with disabilities that included hands-on and peer-involved exercises. Examples of student work showing comic book-like stories about the famous Face on Mars are included, along with student responses to the thinking …

Exploring Mars Mysteries In Nasa Photographs: Could Some Images Be Animal Skeletons?, Laura Meyer, Rob Griffin, Dan Butler

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The NASA photographs containing what appear to be animal skeletons have created a mystery that remains unsolved today. Because they generate questions and inquiries in many arenas, the animal skeleton pictures were used to help gifted students critically think about how these structures were created. Several additional exceptionalities common in most groups of students, including attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity and difficulties in executive functioning, were addressed through the lesson design. The exceptionalities were addressed through methods that could be used in any classroom while using the Mars Animal Skeletons to motivate and engage students. Incorporation of teaching …

Is There Water On Mars? A De Bono Skills Mystery For Twice-Exceptional Gifted Students, Christopher Cox, Megan Sova-Tower, Nathan Wear

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Is there water on Mars? Gifted adult graduate students, some of whom represented the learner exceptionalities of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Slow Information Processing Speed, were asked to explore this mystery by applying Edward de Bono’s CoRT thinking skills of “Aims, Goals, and Objectives,” “Select,” and “Planning” to photographs of Mars landforms. Once they had determined the likelihood that the pictures depicted water on Mars, students were asked to develop three-dimensional models with recycled materials. Analysis of the findings revealed that in utilizing the de Bono CoRT thinking skills, students were able to identify sixteen different categories. Student responses had …

Exploring Animal-Like Images In Nasa Photos Of Mars Using De Bono’S Cort Thinking Skills: Alternatives, Possibilities, And Choices, Compare, And Decisions, Kurt M. J. Devore, Allyson Rafanello, Nicholas Rafanello

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The use of de Bono’s CoRT Thinking Skills of “Alternatives, Possibilities, and Choices,” “Compare,” and “Decisions” create opportunities for students to critically think about ideas using a new lens of thinking. The lesson was designed to accommodate twice-exceptional students, gifted students with the disabilities of dyslexia and/or dyscalculia, through three of the de Bono’s strategies integrated with activities. Gifted graduate students in this lesson were presented with an opportunity to explore and analyze the animal-like images from Mars using the three CoRT thinking skills. The photographs used in this lesson were provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the …

Mars Mysteries: Landform Pictograms, James Zabel, Mathieu Castello, Fiddelis Blessings Makaula

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Graphic organizers are a way for teachers to accommodate students with disabilities such as poor memory or emotional disorders. This technique allows organization of thoughts and visual representation of relationships between ideas and facts. Indeed, poor memory affects students’ reflection and retention of information while emotional disorders can cause a lack of focus in the classroom. Accommodations for students with these disabilities is important because students with emotional disorders may experience social isolation, which in turn may negatively affect their levels of academic achievement. Twenty high-achieving doctoral students participated in a teaching experience designed to introduce gifted students with learning …

Exploring Mars Glass Tube Anomalies, Kimberly S. Mccoy-Parker, Gary Benda, Stanley Ebede

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article provides information regarding the use of Edward de Bono CoRT thinking skills to broaden and enhance critical and creative thinking skills in twice exceptional students using the Mars Glass Tube Mystery as a vehicle to explore possibilities and spark creative thinking. The exceptionalities addressed in this lesson plan are gifted learners who have one or more additional exceptionalities of slow processing speed and / or poor fine motor skills. Throughout the lesson, the Mars Mystery photos leveraged both prior knowledge and student curiosity to create an engaging activity for the participants. CoRT thinking skills provided a robust …

How Did Those Get There? Exploring Structures And Pyramids On Mars, Abby Rau, Brooke Becker

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The makeup of students in our classrooms is becoming more diverse. With this change comes the need for educators to provide accommodations for students and to employ a range of instructional strategies. Arts integration in the content areas is one way to engage students and to encourage individual expression. The purpose of this practical article is to highlight a lesson incorporating the arts and Edward de Bono’s CoRT Thinking Skills to support twice exceptional learners, specifically English Language Learners and students with Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Doctoral students considered the formation of pyramids and structures on Mars using …

Spotlight On Edward De Bono Thinking Skills And Twice-Exceptional Gifted Learners Applied To Mars Mysteries In Nasa Photographs, Ksenia S. Zhbanova, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This editorial provides background information concerning the lessons presented in the eight practical articles of this issue. All of these lessons address Mars Mysteries, anomalous features found in NASA photographs of the Martian surface. These unusual and thought-provoking features are explored by using Edward de Bono CoRT thinking skills to broaden perceptions enhancing critical and creative thinking. The lessons are intended to explore possibilities, but not to provide a definite final answer as to what the anomalies represent. These lessons were designed as enrichment lessons for gifted learners and support Renzulli’s Type I general exploratory experiences that expose students to …

Using Steam To Increase Engagement And Literacy Across Disciplines, Robert L. Long Ii, Stephen S. Davis

The STEAM Journal

This paper explores STEAM as a solution to improving student engagement and helping students improve functional literacy across the curriculum. While STEM is a fairly established approach to curriculum, researchers and practitioners are continuing to develop and understand STEAM and its place in school curriculum. It is important that educators foster this holistic approach to education and strive to participate in active research associated with STEAM. It is also most advantageous for stakeholders to understand the importance of arts integration and its use to support collaboration, innovation, and creativity within students. Key strategies can be used to support arts integration …

A Brief History Of Stem And Steam From An Inadvertent Insider, Lisa G. Catterall

The STEAM Journal

This article traces a history of STEM and STEAM from the perspective of someone involved in arts integration research for the last 35 years, and proposes a vision for the next steps. It also provides an assessment of the risks inherent in current trends of STEAM roll-out in schools, from the lack of resources for professional development to the burgeoning market in STEAM kits and activity books that do not lead to the original learning goals of STEAM.

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.