Eighth graders in Art Tech class recently designed cross pendants with the Tinkercad computer-aided design app on their iPads. The goal is to 3D-print, during the current school year, a pendant for each student who successfully completed the project. If 8th graders would like to print their cross designs, but their work needs modification to print successfully, Mr. Bell is willing to offer time outside of class to help students adjust their models. Once printed, students may wear their crosses on a string or chain.
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This week's work from Mr. Bell's Art Tech classes features 3rd grade airplanes, 5th grade origami, and the 8th grade Stations of the Cross project. A collage of photos shows 3D students as some have finished and others are finishing their paper and cardboard airplane sculptures. This multi-step geometry-based project develops spatial/structural reasoning abilities as students work to create airplanes with structural integrity (i.e., won't fall apart when thrown). Students individualize their airplanes through their color choices and wing designs. For the 8th grade Stations of the Cross project, the grid method was employed to create free-hand pencil and ink drawings which were colored and edited with the Sketchbook app on iPads. Students' drawings are based on illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken. The video below titled "5D Flapping Birds 10-19-2023" shows fifth graders flapping the wings of their origami creations and waking up the neighborhood with their bird calls. Origami helps improve spatial/structural visualization skills and increase students' understanding of geometry concepts. Eighth grade Art Tech students have recently been creating cross design pendants with the Tinkercad computer-aided design app on their iPads. The goal is to 3D-print a pendant for each student who has successfully completed the project. Printing will be done during the remainder of the school year. Students may pass a string or chain through a horizontal hole in the top to wear the cross as a necklace. The video below titled "5W Origami Flapping Birds 10-11-2023" shows fifth grade art students flapping the wings of their origami creations and practicing their bird calls. Origami helps improve spatial/structural visualization skills and strengthens students' understanding of geometry concepts. On Friday, October 6, from 5:00 to 8:00PM, fourteen artworks by SPCS 8th graders were on display in the store front of the Sarah Weir Group realty agency during the Downtown Greenville ArtWalk. Mr. Bell selected 14 from among many beautiful Stations of the Cross drawings that our 8th graders have recently completed.
The Stations of the Cross is a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and the accompanying prayers. Eighth graders used the grid method to make free-hand pencil drawings of illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. When finished with their drawings, students colored and edited photos of their drawings using the Sketchbook graphic design app on their iPads. The following students' work was selected for the ArtWalk: Jules Bowling, Raffy Balanay, Abby Flowers, Valdemar Garcia-Nava, Nick Coggins, Victoria Castillo, Carter Davenport, Alicia Baumgartner, Thomas Stroud, Nathan Wright, Marshall Wingfield, Stelling Harris, Brooke Owens, and Claire McDonald. Below are photos from the exhibition. This week's work from Mr. Bell's Art Tech classes features the 8th grade Stations of the Cross project. Students used the grid method to create free-hand pencil and ink drawings which they colored and edited with the Sketchbook app on their iPads. Students carefully observed gridded illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken as they drew block-by-block on larger proportional grids.
Explore recent "From the Art Room" entries to learn more about this project and see the students' work progress. 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. To kick off the new school year, 8th graders have begun drawing the Stations of the Cross in Mr. Bell's Art Tech class. Students have drawn grids with 1/2-inch squares on small prints of illustrations by contemporary artist Shari Van Vranken. Proportionate grids with 1-inch squares have been drawn on larger sheets of card stock in order to scale up the small images. 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 pencil drawings, students go over their lines with permanent marking pens. Students photograph their drawings after erasing the grid lines and stray pencil marks. Then, the images are developed further and colored electronically with the Sketchbook graphic design app on students' iPads.
The photos below show drawings in progress and students at work in Art Tech class. Middle school students who regularly attended Friday afternoon robotics work sessions in the art room during the 2022-23 school year were invited to test and help de-bug a new robotics project that Mr. Bell plans use with middle school Art Tech Classes. The work sessions were 90 minutes each during 5 days in July.
Students studied code segment examples from a document created for this assignment. Each student designed a sequence of movements for his robot and wrote the appropriate segments with Spike 3 software on a Chromebook. Students used protractors and rulers to calculate the degrees headings, turning angles, and driving distances which they applied to their programming code. While all students had the same goal, they found various ways to achieve it. The challenge was to: (1) drive from a base and shoot a ping-pong ball into a large hole in a board, (2) pull the box into which the ball falls back to base, and (3) remove an object sitting on the end of the wooden peninsula and carry it back to base. Students used identical Spike Prime robot driving bases with catapults, which members of the group helped build during the recent school year for use in Art Tech classes. As a construction component of the project, participants built detachable arms for bringing the objects back to base. Holes near the rear of the robots allow for quick attachment and removal of attachments with "drop-in pins". When this assignment is used with whole classes, each group of 3 or 4 students will be able to store their attachments between classes. Additional challenges can be added easily to this project if groups within a class finish the early. Mr. and Mrs. Pandya and Saint Peter alumna Jasmine Pandya assisted Mr. Bell during the summer robotics service sessions. |
Mr. John Bell, Art TeacherMr. Bell focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and presented STREAM (Science, Religion, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) workshops at the Diocesan Teacher Conference, as well as multiple workshops throughout his years in the Diocese. Archives
July 2024
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