Before I had the opportunity to work with the North Carolina Museum of Art, I thought integrating art into my classroom meant drawing pictures and coloring diagrams. After spending time with Museum educators, I learned that art integration includes observing, interpreting, critiquing, and using pieces of art to relate to the science curriculum. It also includes having students create their own paintings, drawings, and sculptures. By using art in my classroom in these new ways, I have come to the realization that art and science have many connections. And now that I see these natural connections, bringing art into a science classroom has become an easy way to engage, empower, and excite students about learning.
One lesson that has been successful in my classroom is using art to discuss texture in geology. After learning about types of rocks, students are introduced to the painting Orange Outline by Franz Kline. I guide a discussion about the painting and then use it to introduce the students to texture and scale, words that relate to both science and art. I ask the class to compare and contrast how texture is used in art and how it is described in terms of rocks and geology. As a final product, the students create a rock painting. They choose a rock and make careful observations of a small portion of it. They use that small part of the rock to create a larger-scale painting, referring to the rock as often as needed to help complete the painting. I encourage them to use layers of paint, brushes, sponges, and other materials, such as sand and glitter, to add texture to the painting, similar to Orange Outline. Afterward the students complete a reflection that assesses their knowledge of geology as well as their understanding of the art techniques used in this activity.
Using art in a science classroom is a way for me to connect with my students. All students—AIG, EC, ESL, and everyone in between—can have success through art integration. By observing different works of art, students are able to make personal connections, use higher-level thinking skills to analyze the work of art, and learn to value the thoughts and opinions of their peers. Art gives the students a different way to look at the science concepts, which ultimately gives them a better understanding of what is being studied.
Jennifer Rogers is a math and science teacher at Hunters Creek Middle School in Onslow County.
It’s 1956. A dilapidated one-room outbuilding, like you might find on any tobacco farm, stands beside the road in rural North Carolina. The windows are boarded up, the porch is caving in, mud from a chilly rain has splashed up on the cedar siding, and the roof’s been patched over the years. It hasn’t been torn down—these things are best left to the elements. (Who knows, we may need it again someday?!) But now it’s sandwiched between two billboards, tall, crisp, and new, to catch the eyes of passersby bumping down the rural route toward Raleigh. You don’t need to know about art to know the Old Master “Rembrandt” announced in boldly stylized signature script. You just need to know when and where (these details in a playful off-center layout, no less!).
Man in Jiffy-Pop Hat? Dude with ‘Tude? Grade-school wit is so contagious, it’s hard to resist inventing mock titles for such a puerile painting.
Let me be frank. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it happen more than once. Someone moved to tears by a painting? Yeah, right! But it’s true. Lucretia, depicting a bleeding, heartbroken, dying figure, is obviously a tearjerker. We’re seeing it in the galleries quite frequently. One visitor’s sobs prompted a guard to ask if she needed assistance; another’s pacing in front of the painting was sad and intense; a pair of women in conversation on a nearby bench, tearful, emotional. I’m a guy. Honestly, I don’t get it. However, I do get that the ability to pull powerful emotions with strokes of a paintbrush is real genius.
Whenever I work at the Information Desk on the day a “What’s in the Box” session is held, I so enjoy seeing the children leaving with their finished products, all smiles and pride. Now I have had the grown-up version of that experience in the Senior Sampler class! I came away from the first class, “Face to Face,” a study of portraiture, all smiles and even a little proud.
With the opening of Rembrandt in America, our visitors are able to see more authentic paintings by this master presented together than in any other show to date in the U.S. They can enjoy these great works of art, learn about the Rembrandt Research Project, and have a glimpse into the intriguing field of conservation.
It’s that time of year again, dear readers! With the change of the seasons comes a new edition of our billboards project, Park Pictures. We’ve been promoting 
