Franklin Showcase: Art and PBL
- aielloc
- May 9, 2019
- 2 min read
Tonight we held our 3rd all-school showcase of the year, with a focus on Art and PBL (Project Based Learning). Students across the building from K4-5th Grade had the opportunity to share with their school community the work that they have been engaged in and that makes them proud. Project Based units have given students the chance to master grade level and above grade level skills while also collaborating, innovating, and taking ownership of their learning. This evening we got to see all of this in action!
3rd Grade students from Team Odyssey presented their inspired artwork accompanied by geometric calculations and artist biographies. Students chose an artist to study, write about, and explore. They then created a piece using elements (color, line, medium) that their artist may have used. We asked students to calculate the area and perimeter of 5 figures in their art. Many students challenged themselves in this unit to solve not only area of rectangles and squares but attempt using formulas (and prior knowledge of multiplication and division) to find the area of other quadrilaterals such as trapezoids, rhombuses, and kites. Their art work was impressive, their knowledge about their artists vast, and there were lots of smiles as they shared their work with friends and family.
4th and 5th Grade students in Team Enterprise and Team Voyager created original art that included geometric shapes. These students tracked the progress of their pieces by taking pictures along the way of first draft sketches, pencil work, painting, and in some cases calculations. They then worked with Ms. Kosinski to create time lapse videos using either Clips, Keynote, or iMovie (see Sam's example below). They were asked to include at least four quadrilaterals, two triangles, and the option of a 3-D figure. They also labeled photos of their canvases so that viewers could see which shapes they had focused on for calculating area, perimeter, and volume. Students I observed tonight were able to clearly articulate how they performed these calculations. They used math language as they presented such as altitude, perpendicular, base, length, and width. Every piece of art was unique and I could see students' personalities, strengths, and interests shining through in in each component they presented. Nice work artists!
An added bonus to the evening for me was seeing former students, who came back to Franklin to support their younger brothers and sisters. I love catching up with those middle schoolers, and even one class of High Schoolers!
What a wonderful evening of sharing, communicating, pride, questions, art, math, writing, technology, and PBL!
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