STEAM Happenings at NRC

New STEAM projects are happening at the New Roberto Clemente School.

Ms. Diaz, eighth grade math teacher, and Mr. Mercedes, William Paterson University student teacher, have been working with students to create sculptures using pencils.

In the picture at the top left, Mr. Mercedes (left), Ms. Diaz (right) and NRC math students proudly hold their pencil sculptures, a variation of the sculpture created by George W. Hart a mathematical sculptor.  LINK

Above, NRC math teacher Ms. Diaz smiles broadly with an NRC math student.  Students worked with 148 pencils for each sculpture.  After these fascinating pencil sculptures were created students remarked, “It was the coolest project I ever worked on,” and, “It was so much fun!"  The pencil sculptures are being displayed on the classroom windowsill (see below).

Left:  The George Hart sculpture, "72 Pencils," that was the inspiration of the NRC project.   This version uses specially printed ISAMA pencils. (ISAMA is the International Society of the Arts, Math and Architecture.)  This view shows how it looks along a three-fold axis of symmetry.

In a separate STEAM project at NRC (see photos below) Ms. Munem, social studies and science teacher for NRC grades 6-8, used clay and other art materials to teach her students a lesson on the evolution of human beings from earlier species.  Students were first asked to research five salient facts about early humans from their textbooks.  An example of that learning might be,  "Australopithecus is an extinct genus of hominids.  From paleontological and archaeological evidence, the Australopithecus genus apparently evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct somewhat after two million years ago." LINK

Next her students created fossils out of clay that they labeled to enhance their learning.  For some of the more recent species they also created early tools.  They placed their fossils onto a Styrofoam tray they hand-painted.  Students included their five research points. 



These works were then attached to an impressive STEAM bulletin board (see below).  

In a third STEAM project happening at NRC (see photos below), an all-school STEAM collaborative sculpture is being created. The inspiration for this project is a previous collaborative STEAM project done two years ago at Eastside High School as part of the Geraldine R. Dodge STEAM grant.  LINK  LINK  LINK

Above:  For HSPA prep, Eastside High School students had students write vocabulary words, concepts, formulas, etc. onto long strips of art paper.  This paper was later used in the art room to create a collaborative STEAM sculpture/installation using the science department display case.  
In a similar manner, participating NRC teachers are having their students create written strips using content area vocabulary, concepts, formulas, etc. from their various classrooms. Next these long strips of paper are being moved to the art room where they will provide "raw material" for the next large sculpture. Art teachers Ms. Senapole, Ms. Aramayo and Ms. Roche (below, left to right) have developed a methodology for a large-scale hanging sculpture using the written strips that their art students will create.

This collaborative STEAM sculpture will hang in a public space in the NRC building upon completion.  

Below, (see photos) Ms. Moose's math students at NRC learned to plot ordered pairs in all four quadrants using both graph paper and scratch art paper.  Ms. Moose firmly believes this combination of math and art, or STEAM practice, in her classroom helps her students to retain their knowledge. 

 

In Ms. Gonzalez's bilingual class at NRC (see photos below) students recently used scratch art paper to learn science as well as English.  Like Ms. Moose, Ms. Gonzalez feels certain her students retain more knowledge when they are learning classroom content through the arts,  In other words, she, too is a STEAM supporter!

Below:  NRC Teachers meet twice a month for a STEAM meeting. This meeting gives teachers a chance to share on-going STEAM projects in their classroom as well as to brainstorm new ones.  Also attendance at these meetings are: Geraldine R. Dodge STEAM grant co-ordinator Dina Scacchetti, WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras, PIR Betsy Golden, and members of the NRC administrative team.