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Buursmate808 Finalactionresearchproposal 12 10 2014
Buursmate808 Finalactionresearchproposal 12 10 2014
Buursmate808 Finalactionresearchproposal 12 10 2014
Research Question
The setting for my action research project is a premier K-12
coeducational independent school in Northern Virginia. Enrollment for the
2013-14 school year stands at 1,020 students, with 19% of those students
receiving some form of need-based financial aid. Without aid, a year of 4th
grade tuition is $32,325. Approximately 80% of the students I teach are
white and upper/middle class.
I am in my second year of teaching exclusively 4th and 5th grade
science. I teach four sections of each grade, with 16 students per class. 4th
grade students come to my class for science two times a week for 45 minute
class periods, with a third 55 minute class set aside for outdoor education. 5th
graders have science twice a week for 60 minute blocks. Both courses
feature curriculum with largely physical and biological themes, as well as the
development of critical thinking and inquiry skills through extensive handson activities. The school is situated on a 92 acre campus, complete with
woodlands, fields, ponds, and streams, which serve as a second classroom of
sorts and a core resource in meeting my curricular goals.
In many settings, a teacher dedicated to science for 4th and 5th grade is
unusual; however, the structure and specialization of my current position
offers many benefits. My classroom, for example, contains a wealth of handson science equipment that would likely not fit in the typical self-contained
classroom. Additionally, teaching four sections of each course allows me to
develop and refine curriculum quickly. Yet these benefits are tempered with
the limitations of specialization. There are days when I feel like my only
interaction with other adults are a passing Hello. Such isolation presents
obvious challenges to collaboration with colleagues and integration of crosscurricular content. I believe these missed opportunities of collaboration and
integration ultimately limit the connections students make between
disciplines. This context led me to consider research that might benefit
students understandings and participation of science as it intersects with
other subjects.
Traditionally, science standards and curriculum (including the most
recent Next Generation Science Standards) make explicit connections
between science, math, and language arts. These connections are sought
out in large part because of the pressure facing schools to implement
common core curriculum, but what about other disciplines? How does a
subject with similar specialization, such as art, intersect with science? This
question lies at the heart of my research. I hope to uncover commonalities
between art and science and explore how the integration of visual arts might
shape the way students engage with science. Sub-questions of my research
include:
scientific understanding?
What opportunities for art integration lay within my outdoor
education curriculum? How might using natural materials in art
or highlighting the art of nature raise students awareness of
their environment?
Literature Review
of blended science and art learning are multiple and varied, it is important to
consider the approach of such integration.
Bequette and Bequette (2012) are quick to offer a word of warning to
anyone considering art integration. They caution that anytime subjects are
integrated, there is a serious risk that one area will be paid lip service,
counted as being covered, but in fact not honored (p.46). The key to an
authentic shift from STEM to STEAM, they claim, can only happen when the
arts are seen as an end goalnot an entry pointto science topics (Bequette
& Bequette, 2012). Similarly, Ede (2002) suggests that both art and science
must share a quest for freedom (p. 67). One meaningful marriage of art
and science seems to be through the use of metaphor or analogy, where
students are asked to articulate scientific concepts through a visual
metaphor (Buczynski et al., 2012). Other approaches focus on specific skills
like drawing as legitimate ways for students to not only communicate their
understandings, but also organize their knowledge more effectively
(Ainsworth, Prain, & Tytler, 2011). As students are called on to demonstrate
21st century skills of complex communication and non-routine problem
solving, so too will they be called on to blur the lines between art and
science (Buczynski et al., 2012).
Upon reviewing the literature surrounding art and science, I feel
affirmed in the value of pursuing my current research. Although many
connections between art and science have already been drawn, the nature of
Field Notes/Observations
Work to be Completed
Identify, justify, and contextualize research
question/subquestions. Begin collecting sources for
October
literature review.
Construct investigative approach and tools. Complete
November
December
activity went really well. Students were engaged and interested. They
eagerly collected leaves, paying close attention to each leafs color, and
worked collaboratively as a group to order the leaves as best they could from
red to violet. After completing the activity, I planned to evaluate the
experience using a priori themes of the sub-questions I had created at the
start of my study, but as I reflected on the experience (and attempted to
organize my newfound data), I realized my sub-questions did not quite fit the
contours of my arts-infused endeavor. Student engagement, scientific
understanding, and environmental awareness seemed to just scratch the
surface of the richness and complexities that came with fusing science and
art, especially outdoors. Over the next month of conducting science lessons
blended with art, I still reflected on these experiences with my sub-questions
in mind and have formulated a series of claims supported by the findings of
my various data sources; I have also remained open to emergent discoveries
about the nature of art-integration within my science curriculum. These
emergent themes, however, have surfaced not as claims, but rather as new
understandings about me as an educator. For this reason, I discuss these
ideas in the conclusion of my study.
and
Students order leaves by color from red to violet.
put their ideas on the fabric with oil pastels. I was astounded with the results.
When the song began, every student was engaged in careful listening, while
actively filling the fabric with a diversity of lines and colors. Going into the
activity, I was unsure about how such an exercise could serve as a preassessment. To my surprise, certain students naturally began drawing
sounds as waves and many students intuitively made bigger, dramatic
strokes for loud sections of the song. These observations not only clued me
into some students more developed understanding of sound as a wave, but
also served as a reference point later in the unit when we discussed loud
sounds represented by waves with larger amplitudes.
Vi
deo of students drawing sound.
After students finished the activity, they completed a short exit ticket
with two simple questions, What was it like to draw sound? and Did
drawing sound change how you listened to the music, or how you thought
about the sound? Explain. Again, I was not sure about what to expect from
It is worth noting that almost half of the students surveyed felt the extra arts
focus only kind of benefited their science understanding. Although about a
fifth of students felt art was very helpful to their science understanding,
almost the same percentage of students felt the opposite. I think this data
reinforces my conclusion that arts-infusion should be utilized as a tool of
differentiation. Integrating art with science should not be the sole avenue for
student development and expression of understandings, but should
unequivocally be a part of any science teachers instructional toolbox.
Claim: Arts infused science lessons maintained and supported
student engagement.
The wording of this claim is strategic. After examining my data sources,
it became evident that I do not have sufficient findings, or the right type of
findings for that matter, to claim that arts infusion strengthened student
engagement. My qualitative data contains many examples of high student
engagement, but it is important to note that before this study, I already
enjoyed high levels of student engagement. I benefit from a largely inquirybased curriculum, where my biggest classroom management problem is
Showing that students enjoyed doing art in science is one thing, but
specifying why they might prefer the experience is another. There seemed to
be something special happening during the lessons where we integrated art.
Reflecting on the various lessons, it struck me that every time I created an
opportunity for art I also had to give up some aspect of control. If I wanted
students to try and authentically express their understandings through art, I
could not pigeonhole them to a particular picture of my understandings. Art,
by its very nature, gives students ownership. I believe this ownership can
and should play a central role in maintaining student engagement.
Claim: Creating art outdoors, or with natural materials, has the
potential to positively affect students environmental awareness.
Materials, according to the art teacher I spoke with, play a central role
in the exploration and expression of student ideas. For example, it is
essential for an artist to understand the properties of say limestone, opposed
to those of marble, when creating a sculpture. These properties are a direct
connection to where the materials were collected and the processes that
brought them into existence. In this way, artists are incentivized to
understand their environment (or at least the environments pertaining to
their materials). Materials, however, seem to simply be starting point
between the confluence of art and the outdoors. Going outside, painting
landscapes, collecting clay, listening to a river open the door for possibilities
that extend well beyond that particular class period. The art teacher I
interviewed stressed that these types of experiences, ones as simple as
sitting quietly outside, do more than just provide a moment of heighten
awareness; rather, being and doing outdoors fills the tanks of students. If
art is fundamentally about expressing, than rich, varied experiences outside
only make for deeper pools of expression. Such a claim resonates with my
own experiences. In fact, the wonders of creation are an animating force
behind my own vocation in science education. I can only speculate that
student experiences creating art outside, similarly, have the potential to
impact the rest of their lives.
about art in science has really brought me back to why I love science.
Science is about questions, it is about making meaning, it is about
understanding the world better. These past few months thinking about art
has pushed me to consider who I am and how I express, and has ultimately
made me a better science teacher.
This study has been was about the intersection of art and science, but
as it went on it would be more true to say it was about the integration of art
in science. I attribute this to our class structure. I dont get to teach an
Intersections class (although that sounds cool!) I teach a science class and
have to work within my curriculum. In this framework, and considering next
steps of this study, it would be interesting to pursue what science integration
looks like in an art course. To be clear, art is already teeming with science,
but I am curious how I might support art teachers and their curriculum like
they have done for me. I wonder, for example, if art students could keep an
art notebook that figuratively borrows pages from a science notebook. Could
art students create investigations where they identify the variables that
affect their pottery during a firing? Art teachers can be explicit about having
students make observations and reasoning scientifically. As far as next steps
in my own classroom, I look forward to continue integrating art into my
curriculum in authentic ways, especially as it relates to differentiation,
engineering and design, environmental awareness, and student expression.
References
Ainsworth, S., Prain, V., & Tytler, R. (2011). Drawing to learn in science.
Representations, 3, 5.
Alberts, R. (2008). Discovering Science Through Art-Based Activities. Beyond
Penguins and Polar Bears. Retrieved from
http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/earths-changingsurface/discovering-science-through-art-based-activities
Bequette, J. W., & Bequette, M. B. (2012). A Place for Art and Design
Education in the STEM Conversation. Art Education, 65(2), 40-47.
Buczynski, S., Ireland, K., Reed, S., & Lacanienta, E. (2012). Communicating
Science Concepts through Art: 21st-Century Skills in Practice. Science
Scope, 35(9), 29-35.
Chen, K., & Cheers, I. (2012, July 31). STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and
Science Education. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-movement-to-put-arts-intostem-education/
Ede, S. (2002). Science and the contemporary visual arts. Public
Understanding of Science, 11(1), 65-78.
Engler, G. (1994). From art and science to perception: The role of aesthetics.
Leonardo, 207-209.
Frazier, R., & Caemmerer, A. (2014). Science + Art = Enhanced Learning for
Students. Science Scope, 37(5), 38-43.
Appendix A
Science K-12 Philosophy and Objectives
The science program at The Potomac School focuses on the idea that science
is a way of understanding the world. Potomacs ninety-two acre
campus provides opportunities for scientific and environmental studies
in woods, ponds, meadows, wetlands, fields, and streams. Students
use our natural spaces and laboratories for learning science and for
promoting environmental stewardship. At all levels, the science
program emphasizes an inquiry-based approach for investigating the
physical and natural world. This approach fosters a genuine interest in
and appreciation of science, allowing the students to discover and
develop their talent as scientists and to go as far as their interest and
ability will take them. The courses offered by the department
thoughtfully progress from a concrete form to an abstract
understanding of the scientific endeavor. The development of critical
thinking skills provides the basis to design solutions to problems in
society; to challenge nascent ideas and theories as independent
thinkers; and to become advocates of ethical and scientific issues. The
science department is committed to helping our students develop a
passionate engagement with ideas and a lifelong curiosity to continue
to learn beyond the walls of the classroom.
Science K-12 Outcomes
Students will be able to:
use art to explore their own experiences and develop their own
identities.
use art confidently and competently to explore and express their ideas
in a range of media.
imagine, plan, organize, rethink and revise during the creative process.
discuss and critique their goals and accomplishments and the work of
other artists.
seek out, study and understand the art of other times, places and
cultures.