SOIT combines Math and Weaving

At SOIT, Art Teacher Marilyn Simon and her students spent part of December making gorgeous weavings.  This tactile and enjoyable project asks art students to consider math concepts such as spacing, pattern, proportion, shape, and numerals.  She was inspired by Mr. Patrick Honner, a high school math teacher at Brooklyn Tech, in New York City, who synthesizes mathematics and art in his teaching, learning, and personal interests, including weaving.

 

"[Honner] makes creation, including artistic creation, a focus of his mathematics teaching, and helps students see mathematics as a lens to understand and appreciate the world. Patrick has exhibited his work in a variety of juried exhibitions, and makes creating mathematical art an integral component of the student experience in his classroom." Honner has a TEDx that talks about these ideas. (Click below to see this TEDx.)

He has been recognized for excellence in teaching mathematics both nationally and internationally. In the SOIT weaving lesson, Ms Simon explained that color has a value and depends on quantity.  "Color, is also dependent on what is adjacent to it, like numerals on a number line," Ms. Simon explained

SOIT Students could pick from a wide variety of yarns, both in terms of 

width, texture and color.

Students could also pick their pattern choices, and they sought to explain their pattern choices to each other in mathematical terms as part of this lesson.

  

A wide and wonderful assortment of weaving patterns and subsequent weavings have emerged as a result of this intriguing exploration of math using an art/craft form. Now, SOIT students are excited to bring their weavings home for the holidays!

WPU Art Professor in Residence Interviews GOPA STEAM Students

WPU Art Professor in Residence/PIR Triada Samaras has recently interviewed several GOPA STEAM students to find out what new art projects they are doing and to hear them speak about these in their own words.

Speaking to Senior Natasha, Professor Samaras said, "I see that you are using this lavender color for a second time in your artwork.  First you used it in your large piece; now I see it here in front of you.  Can you tell me about this?"

Above:  Natasha's larger piece, 24 x 24 inches, marker on paper

Natasha:  "My beautiful friend motivated me to use purple.  Her name is Ashley.  

Prof. Samaras: "Tell me about how you arrived at the forms you used in the pattern in your large piece."

Natasha:  "I got the idea for the pattern I created by working with squares.  It came naturally out of the process of experimenting with them.

Prof. Samaras:  Do you see any relationship between these works of art and any other subject you are studying in school?

Natasha:  "I usually make artwork that resembles textiles like blankets because I see these things at my home.  I have a bed sheet that resembles my smaller painting and I have the color lavender in my bedroom on the walls.   

Above:  Natasha's smaller piece 24 x 24 inches marker on paper

Next Professor Samaras interviewed Dannyelis who created the artwork below.

Prof. S: Dannyellis, these colors are extraordinary.  How did you choose them?

Dannyellis:  I downloaded a free App from the App Store on the theme of: color.  I made a few choices using the App, then I arrived at these colors you see in my artwork.

Prof S. How do you like using technology to help you make choices for your art work?

Dannyelllis: I love it! The App helped me a lot. Plus, I could do it all on my own!

(Two images below: Art work by Dannyellis 24 x 24 inches, marker on paper.

Lastly, Professor Samaras interviewed Tiana, a senior who hopes to go on to art school next year.

Prof Samaras:  "Can you tell me something about this work you are preparing for your portfolio?"

Tiana:  "Mr. Jones suggested to me to try something inventive with two of my favorite animations, so I decided to create a collaboration between the two.  On the right you see the character, 'Courage' from "Courage the Cowardly Dog".  On the left is 'Number 5' from "Code Name Kids Next Door."  I watch these shows on my computer because they are no longer shown on television. I chose the shows because I grew up watching them, and I am very familiar with the characters.   'Courage' in my opinion is not very cowardly; he is actually brave because he saves his owners at the end.

 

I like  "Number Five's" attitude because she is both feisty and hip.  I wanted to combine these two characters and story lines into one art work."

Prof. Samaras:   "Is 'Number 5' the type of person you would like to become or to have as a friend?"

Tiana:  "Yes.  Both!" 

Above and below images:  Art Work by Tiana, 12 x 18 inches, acrylic on paper

Phase Three: STEAM Collaboration between NRC and North Carolina Museum of Art

                        Above:  Amulet of Isis and Horus North Carolina Museum of Art 305-30 B.C.E.
New Roberto Clemente School 6th grade students learned about the art of Ancient Egypt when they teleconferenced live with the North Carolina Museum of Art on 11/29/2016 and 12/7/2016 in what is "Phase Three" of this on-going collaborative project: "Gaining STEAM from Ancient Egyptian Artifacts."
 

This STEAM collaboration, organized by Art Professor in Residence Triada Samaras, is part of the STEAM initiative in the Paterson Public Schools District funded by the William Paterson University Geraldine R. Dodge STEAM grant, now in its fifth year.  Samaras met last June with with Acting Director of Education Michelle Harrell in Raleigh, NC where the museum is located. Later in the summer NRC Art Teacher Lauren Mandal visited the museum as well. 

                       Above:  Amulet of Nehebkau North Carolina Museum of Art 664-30 B.C.E.
The general theme of this STEAM art collaboration is: "Why Do Human Make"?  In "Phase Two" of this project, 6th grade social studies students completed their writing and wondering activities regarding two Ancient Egyptian Amulets owned by the museum:  the Amulet of Isis and Horus  305-30 B.C.E. and the Amulet of Nehebkau from 664-30 B.C.E.  To do this, they looked at the amulets on their NRC Smartboards, and then held replicas of the amulets in their hands (see below.)  Finally they watched a video on faience (the material of which the amulets are composed.) For example, the Amulet of Nehebkau (above) is made of faience, the oldest known man-made material.  Students wrote many interesting thoughts and questions about the amulets.  For example, they wondered about the reason for the amulets, the makers of the amulets, and the fluke that caused the invention of faience. 

Above: WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras holds 3D printed replicas of the amulets created at NRC by Mr. Baldwin, Technology Teacher, using 3D printers in his classroom and plans sent to him by the museum. (The Amulet of Nehebkau is left and The Amulet of Isis and Horus is right in the above photograph.)  

In this phase of the collaboration (Phase Three,) students “toured” the museum with Camille Tewell, Art Educator, and Emily Kotecki, Distance Educator, using the web conference program Zoom.  Koteki and Tewell displayed the two Egyptian amulets owned by museum using their video camera in Raleigh.  Having read NRC students' previous answers Ms Tewell asked the students more about their responses and elicited new answers from them. In other words, she engaged the students from where she stood in the Egyptian galleries at the museum even as the students sat at their desks in Paterson, NJ, where NRC is located.

                                Above: NRC Students engage with Ms. Tewell via teleconference. 
Students learned these Ancient Egyptian Amulets had special, magic powers and were often worn around the neck for protection. They could readily understand why humans "made" these objects long ago, and could easily see parallels with objects made by humans today for similar purposes.

Above: Mr. Fusco, NRC Social Studies Teacher and his student engage with the amulets via teleconference.
During the teleconference, students simultaneously re-handled 3D-printed by Technology Teacher replicas of these amulets that Technology Teacher Mr. Baldwin created in class from plans previously emailed to NRC from the museum.

Above:  NRC students handle 3D printed replicas of the Amulets create by #D printers in Mr. Baldwin's classroom. His students will begin their "Egypt" study in just a few weeks.


Next Ms. Tewell explained that the students would write about their plans for a new amulet, their own, with special powers and visual features ascribed to them.
They worked on sheets emailed to NRC by the museum for this purpose.
 

Above: Students make plans for their own amulets.

In Phase 4 of this project, students will return to their art classes with their plans, ready to design and create their own amulets, either using traditional media (e.g., paper, clay) or 3D printing technology.  Stay tuned!


This was a true STEAM activity that crossed several disciplines:  Technology (Mr. Baldwin and Ms. Selino), Art (Ms. Mandal and Ms. Senopole), and Social Studies (Mr. Fusco).



At CAHTS: The "Peace for Paterson" Project and Much More STEAM Art!

The "Peace for Paterson" STEAM Project LINK is evolving in several Paterson Public Schools.

For example, at CAHTS, Art Teacher Ms. Reyes and Art PIR Triada Samaras have recently worked together to learn how to fold paper cranes. Now Ms. Reyes is teaching her students to make these birds.  There are many sequential directions involved in this project, and geometry and fine motor skills are used throughout.

 

In another project Ms. Reyes' students are learning to draw urban building-scapes on large sheets of drawing paper, using pencils, erasers, rulers, triangles, and the principles of two-point perspective. 

"Perspective (from Latin: perspicere to see through) is an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are smaller as their distance from the observer increases; and that they are subject to foreshortening, meaning that an object's dimensions along the line of sight are shorter than its dimensions across the line of sight.
Italian Renaissance painters and architects including Filippo Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Luca Pacioli studied linear perspective, wrote treatises on it, and incorporated it into their artworks, thus contributing to the mathematics of art."  


















In another STEAM project at CAHTS, Ms. Samaras and Ms. Reyes have curated and installed an exhibition of art students' work in the display case on the second floor.  This exhibit consisted of works that were drawn using mathematical formula 5-35-5 (LINK) and other works that were created using printmaking to form patterns. 

 

                  

 

Lastly, Ms Reyes and her STEAM art students are exploring weaving with yarn and cardboard looms.  

Students are learning that, "Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Similar methods are knitting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling. (Weft or woof is an Old English word meaning "that which is woven".) The method in which these threads are inter woven affects the characteristics of the cloth."  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving)

 

 

School 7 Enhances Social Studies Learning by Integrating Art

Social Studies teacher Mr. Offerjost adds interest and excitement to the study of history by giving his students activities that bring the subject alive.  As a requirement for their study of early hominids, students worked in teams to create posters simulating cave paintings.  These had to include such items as representations of the skulls, pictures of the bodies, what tools the hominids used, and what they ate.

The products were graded using a rubric keyed to the prescribed sixth grade Social Studies curriculum.

When studying the Roman Empire, students were first shown an example of a mosaic, an art form that was frequently used by the ancient Romans.

They then learned how to make their own mosaics by gluing bits of colored paper to a larger piece of paper.  Working in teams, they created a map of the Roman Empire at the height of its power.  Note:  In the picture below, the mosaics of the different teams have not yet been joined.  Eventually a seamless combined class effort will be produced.

Below, Mr. Offerjost leads a class discussion of the final product and its historical significance.

At Paterson School 2: The "Peace for Paterson" STEAM Art Project is Growing!

Paterson School 2 is another Paterson school where the "Peace for Paterson" STEAM Art Project is evolving.  Art teacher Mrs. Beth Porto and Art PIR Simone Sandler are working together to create several large mobiles of the "Peace Origami Project."  This coordinated lesson started as an original project created by NRC 3D Art Teacher Lauren Mandal (LINK and LINK) and her students.

In School 2, students and teachers decided to create large origami birds that would hold a number of smaller origami birds below them on vertical strings.  The students in grades 5 through 8 are making cranes, while the younger students in grades K through 4 are making swans.  All students were introduced to the history of origami and the many aspects of paper folding.  After completing the paper folding, thus creating their cranes/swans, each student wrote a message of peace on the finished wings of the bird.

The students made holes in one section of the bird so they could all be connected for the mobiles

This STEAM art project was originally inspired by the book: Sadoko and the Thousand Paper Cranes  , a fictional retelling of the story of Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States.

The idea for a "Peace for Paterson" installation grew as students (first in Ms. Mandal's class, then in other art classrooms) conceptualized people from all over Paterson being able to view an artwork based on the Idea of PEACE in Paterson at their school.

Students imagined community members walking by their school school, and viewing an artwork based on  "P E A C E" in the community.

"Peace for Paterson" Project Evolving at NRC!

At NRC/New Roberto Clemente School, the "Peace for Paterson" 

Project LINK continues to evolve!

Last week, Art Teacher Ms. Mandal created and Art PIR Samaras helped implement a variation on the "Peace for Paterson" project using plaster bandages and students' hands forming the "Peace" Symbol.  
First students researched this hand sign, which they learned can be deemed offensive in some countries if the gesture is made with one's palm facing inward.  This was a surprise to many of the students.) 
http://www.wikihow.com/Do-the-Peace-Sign

Above image: NRC 3d Art Teacher Lauren Mandal and one of her students.

 Next, students learned about plaster bandages and how they can make 3D forms.  In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARNvWYjAfsY
students observed the creation of a hand plaster cast using the plaster bandages which are first wet, then placed on the subject's hand, and then allowed to dry.  
Unlike in the video, however, NRC students bravely decided they did NOT want their finished casts to be made of two pieces.

They decided to use a lot of Vaseline on their hands before wrapping them.  
In addition, they tried to devise ways to wrap the bandages around their hands so the finished hand cast would slip off in ONE piece when dry.  This was an exemplary "STEAM" art project with scientific experimentation embedded in the artistic creation.
It took several "helpers" in some cases to pull the hardened cast off a fellow students' hand.  But happily everyone laughed throughout this process and learned a great deal about the creation of 3D forms!  This was a very successful project and students engaged in this process wholeheartedly.

After the hand casts dried, the students had time to think about what colors they would paint their hands.  They decided to use the colors of the rainbow, and the results were spectacular!

 

Next they made origami cranes using the same 'rainbow' color scheme.  The students first decorated their origami papers with personal quotes about "Peace," and reflected upon what peace means for themselves and for Paterson.  Then the folded them into paper cranes. 

Ms Mandal and her students began an impromptu installation of their art work in the upstairs hallway, overlooking the main entrance of the school.

Please see a video of this installed art work below: