Bedichek Student Field Trip
Wall of Hands
Tre Arenz
1994
St. Elmo Service Center, Austin, TX
Photo by Melanie Sherwood
Bedichek Student Field Trip
Doctor Pangloss
David Heymann , Sandra Fiedorek
1999
Household Hazardous Waste Facility, Austin, TX
Photo by Melanie Sherwood
Bedichek Brain Storming Creative Challenge
Photo by Melanie Sherwood
Bedichek Citizen Schools WOW Public Sculpture presentation
Photo by Melanie Sherwood
This webquest curriculum was developed with a grant from Applied Materials to create student-centered, project-based learning that works across disciplines. It is intended as a starting point for students to discover the value of art in public places. Through this process they will be challenged to evaluate art in public places within walking distances of their school. They will then create a PowerPoint proposal & scale model for the construction of a public artwork at their school. Ultimately, if the proposal is accepted by the school community they will produce and install the work of art.
This lesson supports a broad range of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Language Arts, Mathematics, Technology, Geography, Art, and Social Skills, primarily for grades 6-12.
The curriculum was written by Melanie Sherwood, developed with the assistance of Kay Owen at Citizen Schools, Megan Crigger-Weiller, Kathleen Brady, and Meghan Turner at Austin Art in Public Places. It was piloted with 6th and 7th grade students in the Citizen Schools afterschool program at Bedichek Middle School in the Spring of 2007.
This curriculum can be adapted for different grade levels, but is primarily intended for use by middle schools and high schools. It represents a great opportunity for interdisciplinary learning. By using the arts in our community and neighborhoods as a starting point for explorations in the fine arts, math, and language arts, students develop a sense of being active participants in their community and see a practical application of their knowledge. Art teachers may focus more on the elements and principles of art. Math teachers may focus on scale and measuring problem-solving. Social studies teachers may focus on the civic involvement and unique problems communities must solve collaboratively. You are encouraged to adapt this lesson to your own unique learning environment.
Curriculum for elementary students using public art and the sculpture of Charles Umlauf is available on the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum website.
This project is designed to foster collaboration among students. Designed for small groups of two to four students, it emphasizes clearly defined group roles and fosters consensus building skills. Students, through brainstorming activities, hone creative thinking. Technology is incorporated through the student creation of persuasive PowerPoints. Given the opportunity to present their ideas, students practice oral presentation techniques.
There are several ways to approach the project. One is to have several teams come up with their own unique proposal. If using this approach you would be wise to restrict the project to one particular art material, such as clay, plywood, fiber, etc.. Another approach is to have the whole class work on one proposal and have each team work on a different aspect of the proposal such as site model building, sample making, or PowerPoint presentation.
Fine Arts: Grades 1-12 117.2 (1-4)
(1) Perception. The student develops and organizes ideas from the environment.
(2) Creative expression/performance. The student expresses ideas through original artworks, using a variety of media with appropriate skill.
(3) Historical/cultural heritage. The student demonstrates an understanding of art history and culture as records of human achievement.
(4) Response/evaluation. The student makes informed judgments about personal artworks and the artworks of others.
Reading: Grades 6-12 110.2 (13)
Reading/inquiry/research. The student inquires and conducts research using a variety of sources.
Mathematics: Grades 5-8 111. (1-13)
Measurement. The student solves application problems involving estimation and measurement.
Patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking. The student solves problems involving proportional relationships.
Underlying processes and mathematical tools. The student applies mathematics to solve problems connected to everyday experiences, investigations in other disciplines, and activities in and outside of school.
Geometry and spatial reasoning. The student compares and classifies shapes and solids using geometric vocabulary and properties.
Social Studies: 113.
(7.21) Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of sources including electronic technology.
(3.5) Geography. The student understands the concepts of location, distance, and direction on maps and globes.
(3.11) Citizenship. The student understands the impact of individual and group decisions on communities in a democratic society.
This Public Sculpture Webquest is intended to facilitate students’ ability to solve problems in a collaborative process. In this process, students will not only learn consensus building but also how to work within the constraints of a design problem. Small groups of three to four students with clearly defined roles are important for the process. You may choose to rotate team roles among the group or have groups keep the same roles throughout the process.
This Webquest addresses the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains of learners. Click here to download a grading rubric for the overall project. Rubrics for individual components of the Webquest are available for students as they experience the process of developing a proposal and building a site model.
PowerPoint Public Art Proposal Rubric
Visiting Public Art-This curriculum was designed for schools in Austin, Texas. To find out what public sculpture is accessible to your school in Austin, you can visit the Art in Public Places (AIPP) website for a map. Sites not accessible by walking may be accessible by city buses. AIPP offers a DVD for educators called Coming of Age: 21 Years of Public Art that documents the process of numerous public artworks around Austin. Before we went on our field trip at Bedichek we looked at various reproductions of sculptures and talked about the different ways we can appreciate art. That while we might love an artwork for the idea it presents we may not want that same artwork in our living room.
Preparation for the Project-The teacher or facilitator working with the principal and other
school stakeholders, should plan suitable locations for the public
art and be aware of possible restrictions for the project, budget or funding, and time
constraints. Things to consider are whether you want the final installation to be
a collaborative singular piece or many individual pieces that, when placed together,
create a unfied whole. You may also want to consider what materials will be
available for building student models. Criteria for the models should include the ability to fit on a single desk top.
At Bedichek Middle School, we had two teams working on two different projects. If adapting this curriculum for
middle school students, you may wish to consider restricting the project materials to one form of material. It was very important to the students
at Bedichek to have "hands on" and create their own sculpture, so we did small scale samples for the proposals. This became problematic when we were
trying to work with one group painting and another group with clay bas relief. You may want to consider working on one proposal and having teams work on different aspects of the proposal (ie. a model building team, a sample creation team, a PowerPoint presentation team, etc).
Team Building-If your students are not accustomed to working in teams you might consider using a team building game such as Visionary, Reporter and Architect. Have three to six colored shapes of different sizes arranged and taped down in a shallow box. In another shallow box have the same shapes but loose and not arranged. Place each box at either end of the classroom with one student next to each box and one student in between. One student will be the Visionary (with box of arranged shapes taped down) explaining to the student Transcriber in the middle of the room how the shapes are arranged in the box. The student Transcriber must tell the student Architect(s) how to arrange the shapes to duplicate what is in the Visionary´s box. This exercise demonstrates to students the difficulties often associated with translating ideas to concrete form. It's also a wonderful lesson in communication.
Brainstorming-Using colored markers and flip chart paper were very helpful at Bedichek in getting students to work large and have fun filling the page with ideas.
Presenting-We spent 3 weeks rehearsing with the Bedichek students for the final presentation. We chose the strongest speakers to present, while the other team members supported the project leader by showing samples and talking about problem solving. If you have chosen to have several teams voting on several different projects, be sure to let your voters know about the criteria for the project.
The following resources compliment the sites and resources in the student section of the Webquest. They maybe helpful in adaptations to the Webquest.
The Quest Garden-A library of webquests and templates for creating your own.
Artlex-Lessons & Rubrics for Sculpture and Architectural Models
We want to hear from you. If you use this Webquest or adapt parts of it for your lessons, please share your insights with other teachers. If you create your own public art or sculpture Webquest, we would like to add a link to your site as a resource. Please click on the contact link at the bottom of this page to send your comments to the Education Coordinator at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum.