Science/Arts Integration Abound in Paterson Public Schools this Fall!

NRC has a new science teacher this year, Mr. Blake who has been using arts integration to a great extent to teach science in his classes and enrichment periods.  Art PIR Triada Samaras has been working with him, and gave Mr. Blake a copy of the "WPU Arts Integration Lessons Binder" compiled for the Arts Integration Summer Institute 2018.  Dr. Heejung An, Dodge Arts Integration Coordinator, is highlighting the content area of Science for the 2018-2019 Arts Integration Grant in the Paterson Schools this year.

Mr. Blake has already attracted a group of eager and interested students to his classroom where these hands-on lessons and pedagogy captivate them.
In this first project Mr. Blake adapted a lesson on race cars which was contributed to the WPU Arts Integration Binder by WPU PIR Simone Sandler: "Creating Arts that Move."


Students in Blake's class were given the assessment details that their cars would be judged on three categories:  Beauty/ Speed/ Most Style.  Teams of students were given the following materials:  1 piece of cardboard, 2 large straws, 4 Styrofoam trays, 4 small straws, masking tape. His directions were:  "Use any class or personal artistic research to customize your vehicle.  To win, entries must be operational. Prizes include cash and candy for the winning teams!"

Below are several constructed cars before painting.

                          One car after being painted below:

Ramp test for cars:

                                          Video of car test in the classroom below:

Another Arts Integration lesson that Mr. Blake teaches in his NRC classroom is a "Tinker Toy Activity he adapted from the Internet."  Again, there is an assessment built into this activity.
(See below)
















































In addition Mr. Blake and his students built an "earthquake tester machine" to test the structural soundness of the students' handmade "buildings" according to the earth quakes waves. 




















"These Arts Integration activities never fail to capture the attention on my students,"
Mr Blake said.

Below are two student-made buildings constructed out of paper and tested on the machine.
The weakest building crumpled the most. Students learned about force, compression, tension, torque and other principles of engineering.