Online Course: Art and Math
This self-paced, ten-hour course explores points of integration between the K–8 North Carolina Essential Standards in Math and Visual Art. The course includes opportunities for educators to learn strategies for using art to identify math concepts, apply math skills to create art, and to reflect within a collaborative peer learning community. Participants gain an understanding of best practices in arts integration and become more familiar with the NCMA’s collection.
Each course module is divided into three sections: Define, Explore, and Practice. In Define, we introduce concepts, vocabulary, and works of art to stimulate thinking and help you begin identifying points of integration between art and math. In Explore, we ask you to deeply engage in those points of integration through participating in visual thinking routines and short activities that uncover math within art. In Practice, you engage in using math as a building block to create art by viewing teacher spotlight videos and exploring exemplar lesson ideas. You then reflect on these various projects and select several that connect best with the mathematics standards that you teach, trying out those projects and planning how you would adapt them to your teaching.
The 7 Points of Integration covered in the course are:
- Shape
- Pattern
- Symmetry
- Measurement
- Coordinate Points and Planes
- Ratio/Fractions
- Data Visualization
The course is aligned with the K–8 North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Visual Art and Math, which can be adapted to support foundational knowledge in secondary art and math courses. It is open to educators of all disciplines and audiences. A certificate of participation for 10 hours (1 CEU) is provided with approval from the local school system.
Course registration and access note
This course is administered using Schoology. Some school systems may block learning management systems that are not used by a district. You may need to use a personal email address to access the course. Please consider using the same email address to register.
Image: Roman, possibly from Vienne, France, Polychrome Mosaic Pavement, 2nd century, marble, limestone, and glass, H. 2 1/2 × W. 99 1/2 × D. 98 1/2 in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes