Egyptian Art Study at SOIT and Engineering King Tut

 Above image:  Art instructor Mrs. Marilyn Simon with a student from her STEAM class.

The latest STEAM project at SOIT is a study of ancient Egypt in two and three dimensions.  

 

For the first part of this comprehensive project, Mrs. Simon's art students read about ancient Egypt, focusing on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Students learned that hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt.  These hieroglyphs, students read, were also called, "G/god's words", and "were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements.  Early hieroglyphs date back as far as 3,300 BCE, and continued to be used up until about 400 CE, when non-Christian temples were closed and their monumental use was no longer necessary."  Link

Students noted questions about their readings into their writing journals, and then researched these questions using the internet in the classroom. They paid close attention to the types of art prevalent in ancient Egypt noting, for examples, colors, lines, shapes, and forms common to that era.  Students learned the elements of art are present in artworks of every era.

Next, students began their projects using pencil on large white paper.  They created unique compositions including: their names written in hieroglyphs, their favorite items from ancient Egypt, a profile view of a person from that time and place, and hidden messages embedded in their art works written in hieroglyphs.  Subsequently, they added watercolor pencil and metallic marker effects to their projects.

Some of their artworks in progress are depicted here.  Many of the students embedded messages in these artworks using hieroglyphs.  They wrote words or phrases that are typical of contemporary high school students, but written in the ancient system, for example:

"Don't do drugs." 

"Life is art; Art is life." 

"I love cookies." 

"Not safe." 

"Hope."

"I hate dogs." 

"I love my friends." 

"Passion is life."

"Art is everything." 

"Shy."

After the two-dimensional projects were completed, the Art II class brainstormed together and decided to create a three-dimensional project, a sarcophagus of King Tut.  For this project, the students brainstormed solutions in groups before embarking on a common solution.  These students acted as engineers using their knowledge of science, mathematics, appropriate experience, or tacit knowledge to find suitable solutions to the sarcophagus problem. 

 

They learned engineering is the "application of mathematics, empirical evidence and scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, innovate, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, tools, systems, components, materials, and processes."  LINK

 

The Art II students came to appreciate that multiple reasonable solutions usually exist, so engineers must evaluate the different design choices on their merits and choose the solution that best meets their requirements.  Engineers must consider multiple design choices and pick the best one.  Thus brainstorming took on a whole new meaning for these students.

Mrs. Simon's students began with a strong armature, or support beam. They then created cylinders from newspapers and tape to build up the work.  They planned for strength and paid special attention to weight.  They used spheres instead of cylinders to fill in and shape rounded areas.  

"Genrich Altshuller, after gathering statistics on a large number of patents, suggested that compromises are at the heart of "low level" engineering designs, while at a higher level the best design is one which eliminates the core contradiction causing the problem." LINK

Mrs. Simon’s students learned that engineers typically attempt to predict how well their designs will perform to their specifications prior to full-scale production. They use, for example, prototypes, scale models, simulations, destructive tests, nondestructive tests, and stress tests. Testing ensures that products will perform as expected. LINK

 

On a recent trip to North Carolina, WPU STEAM Art Professor in Residence Triada Samaras met Michelle H. Harrell, a former K-12 art teacher in Raleigh, NC, and now Chief Educator at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  Ms. Harrell has an on-going interest in STEAM and arts integration and was awed by the student art works on ancient Egypt being done by Ms. Simon's STEAM class.  Ms. Harrell provided some resources for Ms. Simon's STEAM students.  (See images below.)

Ms. Samaras and Ms. Harrell hope to create a collaborative STEAM project in the fall with Paterson STEAM students and the North Carolina Museum of Art.  As Ms. Harrell explained to Ms. Samaras, part of the mission of the museum is to invite interactions among diverse communities, and foster collaborative partnerships.
The North Carolina Museum of Art is publicly funded by the state of NC and offers free admission to the park and permanent collection.

More progress on King Tut coming to this blog soon!