Many 8th graders have recently finished the Stations of the Cross project in Mr. Bell's Art Tech class.  Students used the Renaissance-based grid method to create free-hand pencil and ink drawings which they colored electronically on iPads. Illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken served as model images for this student art.  

Kindergarteners are currently making paper maracas, which they will soon embellish with paper mache, faces, and cotton hair.  After rolling paper cylinders, and sealing corn kernels inside with paper end caps, students test their seals by doing the shake test.  If corn flies out, a hole needs to be patched with paper and tape.  During this project, students learn about cylinders by constructing them with paper and tape.  Kindergarteners engage in challenging spatial/structural problem solving as they draw, cut, trim, patch, and secure the lids of their maracas.  Click the video below to see the KB art class test their maracas.  Will the corn stay inside?      ​

Some 8th graders have finished the Stations of the Cross project in Mr. Bell's Art Tech class, and several students are nearing completion.  Students have drawn grids on small prints of illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken.  Proportionate larger grids have been drawn on  card stock, upon which students scale up the small images by drawing the contents of each grid block with pencil and ink.  After erasing the grid lines and photographing the drawings, the images are colored electronically on iPads.

The photos below show six finished Stations of the Cross images.  A photo of Marshall Wingfield's drawing demonstrates the patience and sustained block-by-block focus necessary for doing high-quality work on the drawing stage of the project.  

Also below, 2ME art students appear at the end of a class during which they were finishing the construction and assembly of the basic cross shape of their paper, cardboard, and paper mache sculptures.  Students will soon build support bases and create colorful tassels for the upper ends of the crosses. Students will carry these works into the church during the 8th grade All Saints Program on November 6th.

​Each week, Mr. Bell makes a list of middle school students who want to work with robots in the art room on the Friday of that week from 3:15-4:45PM.   On Wednesday night, Mr. Bell emails parents of interested students.  If students enjoy designing, building, and coding, they may choose to attend regularly.

Many students enjoy these robotics sessions because of the camaraderie and engineering challenges.  Each Friday, there is an objective for the group.  The current goal is for returning 7th and 8th graders to teach sixth grade attendees how to successfully write code for a "line follower" challenge.  Portions of the EV3 Lego robots shown in this week's photos were constructed by attendees during the previous two Friday sessions.  

Our line follower challenge involves using color sensors to detect the intensity of light reflected from the table's surface.  The collected data is used to control right and left drive motor speeds.  As robots drive autonomously along the edge of a black line, they pick up objects with a lifter arm.  Each table has different distances between the target objects.  Thus, students at each table must learn to successfully determine the travel distances of each segment needed for their table's specific challenge.   (Driving distances are measured in rotational degrees of one of the drive motors.)

After learning to solve the line follower challenge during Friday robotics, the attending 6th graders will be able to serve as leaders when the 6th grade Art Tech classes face this challenge.  

We are fortunate to have the assistance of Mrs. Melissa Ju, assistant teacher of 1st grade and an SPCS mom, at our Friday robotics work sessions.

The photos below are from Friday, September 8.