Recycle for Life: Science Through Art
HOW IT WORKS
Recycle for Life: Science Through Art educates
and empowers children to make a difference by promoting environmental issues
through art. Students draw conclusions and make comparisons from
real-life data, and the art projects provide them with exciting hands-on
experiences that stimulate comprehensive and informative nonfiction
writing. During this inquiry based program, they discover the value of
reducing waste and determine how to change wasteful behavior in
school and at home. For a period of eight weeks, students develop
a campaign to promote recycling using various media. They view a
video, “Where Does the Garbage Go?,” that initiates discussions
about the need to recycle and the impact of waste on the environment.
They share ideas about recycling on the “Recycle for Life” wall. Then,
the students create recycling campaign posters and hang them
throughout the school. Next, students brainstorm various ways they can
raise awareness. For example, they can conduct an audit to ensure
that each classroom has the proper waste receptacles and signage,
weigh the paper waste for two weeks, and chart the results, thus
incorporating math into the program. They create word problems and collect
and analyze data. Through a series of art projects, students
discover various ways that paper can be reused. They collect paper
boxes, decorate them, and distribute these “scrap boxes”
to classrooms, explaining how to reuse paper for scratch copies, notes,
and drawings. Other recycled-art projects include collage posters,
Eric Carle collages, three-dimensional paper sculptures, and a
fourteen-foot-long paper-plate dragon. For each project, students write
“how to” instructions, thereby utilizing language arts. The final project is
making paper from the scraps that have been collected. This encompasses
all the elements of this interdisciplinary program: teaching peers about separating
paper waste, weighing the paper waste, and reusing paper through art.
THE STUDENTS
All 625 students in grades K-5 participated in this program though
their Art curriculum. It can easily be adapted by classroom teachers as
well as small groups, including special education classes.
THE STAFF
Pamela Saturday has taught Fine Arts at MNS for the past seven
years. She holds a BA and MFA in Fine Arts and for the past two
years has acted as Art Coordinator for District 2 in Manhattan. This
program was conceived and implemented with the help of Lisa Sheers, Art
Room Assistant, and Sherry D’ Angelo, Parent Volunteer.
WHAT YOU NEED
Most materials are recycled and can be found around the school or
brought from home. Additional supplies include scissors, glue,
tempera and watercolor paints, and blenders, screens, and tubs for
papermaking. A computer with Internet access and/or the public library
can provide reference material. Local sanitation departments can help
with videos and instructional materials.
OVERALL VALUE
Combining the science of recycling with art is a fun, creative, hands-on
program that also addresses real-world problem solving. Students
gain self-esteem as they learn a lifelong skill and share that knowledge
with others in the community. This program meets New York State
Standards for Science, Art, Math, and Language Arts, and addresses
the needs for all learners. It provides a springboard to creativity,
from which the possibilities of topics and projects are boundless.
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