Sixth grade art tech students are currently working on the sewing stage of their cell pillow sculptures. This STEM-oriented project began last semester with drawings of animal and plant cells.  Students photographed their drawings and labelled them with the Sketchbook app on their iPads.

Recently, students traced the outer edges of photocopies of their cell drawings onto sheets of felt cloth. The "running stitch" is used for sewing along the traced edges to join the two halves of each cell.  A "pull-through hole" is left open so the joined sheets can be turned inside-out after excess cloth around the cell is cut away. Poly-fill stuffing packs the interior of each cell. Students use the "whip stitch" to seal the pull-through hole.

After completing the basic pillow form, students will refer to their drawings as they carefully design organelles for their cells.  The organelles will primarily be made from cloth scraps that are left over from the construction of the basic pillow forms.  The organelles will be attached to the surface with fabric glue.

​8th graders in art tech class continue to advance on their Stations of the Cross pencil and pen drawings, which they will soon develop into colorful digital images.  Grids and pencil marks are visible in some of the drawings shown here, while some have black marker pen lines and white spaces that have been electronically "cleaned up" in the Sketchbook app on students' iPads. Although our students employ modern electronic technology to develop their images, the basis of their work on this project is the ancient drawing method of carefully observing and analyzing a subject, and using tools (pencil and pen) to transfer visual information to a physical surface (cardstock).

For this project, students have drawn grids with 1/2-inch squares on small prints of illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken.  They have made proportionate grids with 1-inch squares on their drawing papers in order to scale up the images which they are observing.  This method was widely used by artists during the Renaissance to scale up drawings to larger formats.

8th graders are currently drawing the Stations of the Cross in art tech class.  Students have drawn grids with 1/2-inch squares on small prints of illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken.  They have made proportionate grids with 1-inch squares on their drawing papers in order to scale up the images which they are observing.  Math concepts are reinforced as students must remain focused on corresponding positions on 2 graphs as they draw the contents of each grid block.   When finished with their drawings, students will have the opportunity to develop their images further with Sketchbook graphic design software on their iPads or use traditional materials such as pens, markers, colored pencils, and watercolor.  ​

Fifth grade art students have recently been creating relief sculptures of sea animals.  Students used the grid method to draw from photos of aquatic animals.  They transferred their drawings to Styrofoam sheets which they cut out with saws.  The form of each animal was built with paper and tape.  Paper mache and glitter glue were used to create the skin.  ​