Coming Soon to Paterson: Phase One: A "Virtual" Museum visit from the North Carolina Museum of Art!

Above:  The amulets of Nehebkau (left) and Isis and Horus (right) from Ancient Egypt printed out on a 

three D printer from scans of the objects made at the NC Museum of Art

This fall at NRC/New Roberto Clemente School in Paterson, NJ, the STEAM program will feature a  a "virtual" field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art via videoconferencing.  Enhancing the visit will be 3D printing.  

This collaborative STEAM art project between the museum and NRC began when WPU STEAM Art Professor in Residence Triada Samaras, met North Carolina/NC Museum of Art Acting Director of Education Michelle Harrell in Raleigh, NC, where the art museum is located. Together they planned for a fall STEAM art collaboration between selected NRC teachers and students together with Distance Learning Educator Emily Koteki from the NC Museum of Art.  In the planned lesson Ms. Kotecki will interact directly with NRC students in the classroom from the museum Egyptian Wing, using videoconferencing.

For this project, NRC technology teachers will print 3D replicas of historical objects from the permanent Egyptian Art collection of the museum prior to the virtual class with Ms. Koteki. In this way NRC students will be able to have tangible objects to examine, thus engaging their interest and increasing their understanding of what they are learning. Students from technology classes and art classes at NRC will participate in these activities in November. In addition, history teacher Mr. Fusco's students, who are currently studying Egyptian history, will be attending.

Above:  Mr. Baldwin's trial 3-D prints of historical 

objects from the North Carolina Museum of Art Egyptian Wing

Mr. Baldwin, technology teacher at NRC, has developed an enormous interest in 3D printing in his classroom to date.  (He is also an expert in computers and video production.)  Mr. Baldwin already made model 3D prints of the amulets of Nehebkau (above, left) and Isis and Horus (above, right) from Ancient Egypt from scans of the objects made at the NC Museum of Art that were sent to him at NRC. When NRC acquires the larger format 3D printer, Mr. Baldwin will print these amulets at a larger scale, perhaps in color or in translucent filament.

Above pictures: Mr. Baldwin in his classroom with 3D design 

works done by him with his students in his technology classes last year.

In addition, Mr. Baldwin will assist both WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras and NRC technology teacher Janette Selino with setting up the videoconferencing in both classrooms. Mr. Baldwin hopes in the near future to acquire three large format and a grand scale 3D printer for his rapidly expanding technology program in his classroom.


More to come in the near future on this exciting project!