I Said Up, They Said Down
While serving as a principal, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with extremely talented science and art department teachers and chairs who were receptive to developing and delivering interdisciplinary science-based curricular units of study and course offerings. Our science department collaborated with the art department, which doubled in size, on a number of curricular projects and nurtured the growth of the science department to a 44-person-strong division of biology, chemistry, physics, and STEAM-elective instructors.
Ars Docendi
Over the period of nine years, we created and nurtured a number of innovative programmatic offerings through cross-collaborative curricular writing and team building. Those efforts resulted in unique, meaningful interdisciplinary experiences for all students. Throughout the years, I have employed these art of chemistry learning opportunities with students in a variety of schools, ranging from college preparatory selective enrollment to a therapeutic day school setting.
Some of these learning experiences require just a couple of days of team teaching (and/or swapping classes) while others take on the form of long term, project-based learning that affords students with a much greater depth and breadth of STEAM learning. These real world, “chemistry of art” and “art of chemistry” experiences provide creative, cross-curricular instruction for chemistry learners to make connections to art and for art students to learn the chemistry behind their creations. I believe innovative teaching and leading are catalysts in the art and science of learning.
Raku Glazing
Interdisciplinary ceramics students create beautiful pieces of art all the while learning the beauty of chemistry within their art. Likewise, chemistry students engaged in ceramics-based lessons and raku firing observe, firsthand, the physical and chemical changes that take place during raku pottery making. In addition, chemistry and art students learned about the historical and cultural origins of traditional Japanese raku firing for creating pottery through a blended, interdisciplinary lens. Raku firing is a method of pottery making that includes students removing pottery from a kiln (while it is still extremely hot) and then placing the pottery into containers for combustion reactions followed by oxygen reduction. There is quite a bit of chemistry occurring during raku firing as well as the process of glazing, which makes this a wonderful project-based learning experience.
During raku firing, students learn about the porous, chemical composition of clay and the physical chemistry that takes place when clay is glazed and heated to temperatures reaching upwards of approximately 980o Celsius. Art and Chemistry lessons include the processes of combustion and reduction. Students engage in the practice of placing clay in a combustible metal chamber with combustible materials (usually paper) where the atmosphere changes and oxygen is reduced out of the chamber. Students observe the science that takes place when combustibles burst into flame and reduce the oxygen as well as crystallization from the thermal shock of metallic glazes (copper, cobalt, etc.) that form metallic colors, such as red, blue, and green.
Students also learn about the minerals of clay (alkali and alkaline earth metals) and the importance of oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium for raku firing. The authentic chemistry and art knowledge students develop provides a valuable opportunity for students to observe the physical changes and transformations of clay during the formation of the pottery they create. In addition, students are able to observe chemistry in motion and learn firsthand about the important, resulting kaolinite structures from raku firing. These creative educational experiences light the flames of learning.
Throughout this project-based experience, chemistry and art students are exposed to cross-curricular, co-taught content with respect to the art and chemistry of the ceramics they create. Students also learn about liquid glazes and their composition. Raku firing and glazing of silicon dioxide and aluminum oxide are examined for exploring the physical and chemical properties of silicates that influence the different qualities and atomic structures impacting color, opacity, and texture.
UV Sensitive Fabric Cyanotype
Students in chemistry collaborate with fashion design, printmaking, and art students in studying and exploring UV sensitive materials for cyanotype printmaking. In these chemistry and art experiences, students work with light activated reactions for creating artwork on clothing and fabrics as well as photosensitive paper for display.
Cyanotype is a 170-year-old photographic printing process that uses chemicals to create prints. This process originally became popular due to its ability to easily create duplicated prints (thus the interwoven historical/cultural lessons!). The word cyan comes from the Greek, meaning “dark blue substance.” Student works of art reflect a distinct blue (cyan) color. Students in art and chemistry learn about the reaction of ferrous ions to the photo reduction of ferric ammonium citrate in combination with potassium ferricyanide for cyanotype printmaking.
Chemistry and art students are also afforded historical lessons and engineering printmaking background with respect to the process of cyanotype printmaking. Students learn about Sir John Herschel’s work in inventing the process, which was originally intended for reproducing and distributing written records. Students then learn about botanist Anna Atkins’ research in using photosensitive paper (a process is called a photogram) for creating cyanotype prints. Anna Atkins’ work included placing organisms, such as plants, on treated paper. Cyanotype print can also be used with transparent, translucent, or opaque objects to make cyanotype photos. The photos can be made on cloth or paper, thus worn or displayed.
Students duplicate Atkins’ work by placing plants or other transparent, translucent, or opaque objects on photosensitive paper and then placing the items in sunlight for exposure. The results are prints that capture images of the organisms or items placed on the paper that appear as greenish-blue photographic images.
This particular experience provides artistic prints that art and chemistry students create. This experience also enables students to examine the physical chemistry of UV sensitive fabrics for cyanotype printmaking. Exploring cyanotype printing serves as a great cross-curricular project between art and science. Students learn about the chemistry of creating sensitizing solutions from ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide in an artistic setting. Cross-collaborative teaching and learning provides students opportunities to create “scientific” works of art.
Tie-Dying and Covalent Bonding
Students can also be provided cross-curricular lessons on the chemical history and artistic use(s) of dyes and how dyes adhere (bond) to fabric. These types of experiences work nicely for interdisciplinary learning between fashion classes and chemistry classes. It also works well with physics (optics) classes when learning about the light spectrum and color absorption and reflection (color absorption and reflection is also covered in biology during photosynthesis).
Everyone has either owned, seen, or perhaps made a tie-dyed piece of clothing at some point in his or her life, which makes this a fun interdisciplinary STEAM lesson. In addition, learning the science behind tie-dying provides an enjoyable platform for students to create an artistic product they can wear while learning the history and science behind tie-dying.
Students are provided a background on cotton production (biology and economics) and its use for clothing. Students are also provided background on clothing made out of rayon, bamboo, Tencel (wood pulp), hemp, linen and other natural fibers. Students learn about reactive dyes and their propensity to permanently attach to cellulose fibers through covalent bonding. Covalent bonding is a very common type of bonding that occurs when molecules share electrons. Learning should not be laborious. It should be a labor of love. Whenever I taught chemistry or biochemistry I used to make students repeat aloud, “Happiness is a covalent bond!” or “A happy atom is a covalently bonded atom!” for teaching the basics of sharing electrons to complete energy levels for simplistic introductory understanding of chemistry.
Tie-dying art lessons also provide opportunities for students to develop an authentic understanding of pH, the role of soda ash with dyes, and the role of catalysts in chemical reactions (with respect to the soda ash). Tie-dying and covalent bonding provides opportunities for art and chemistry students to observe the sharing of electrons in motion and create artwork in the form of tie-dyed clothing.
Chemistry Cubes and Art Computer Design
Art, chemistry, and computer science students engage in cross-curricular lessons using the periodic table, Adobe software, and 3D printers for producing etched cubes reflecting information from each element on the periodic table.
Each side of the cube is produced from a 2” x 2” template (six different templates in all). Students research periodic trends for each element (for example, atomic size, electron affinity, Z-effective, etc.) from the periodic table. Students then make the cubes and build a truly interactive three-dimensional periodic table. Art, chemistry, and computer science students can physically manipulate the cubes to learn/observe trends via a real life, interactive, piece of art.
This cross-curricular project makes learning the periodic table and information about each element much more memorable. Students sometimes tend to have difficulty remembering specifics from the periodic table and this project essentially provides an opportunity to build interactive, three-dimensional flashcards using a modern approach.
pHun! Chemistry Magic Show
This was something I vividly remember initially feeling reluctant to approve but after doing so, it became an annual event and quite the success! Students participate in researching the chemistry behind magic tricks and put on a magic show. My reluctance was not approving the magic show but approving the visiting magician (I was afraid a clown would show up but he was a magician) to perform science tricks in a college preparatory classroom for science learning!
There is quite a bit of interdisciplinary science, art, and mathematics involved in the magic tricks and I have never looked at disappearing water, floating metal, and flameproof money the same way again!
Creating an Infographic
This is a very simple yet highly effective art and chemistry tool for creating a visual representation of information and data. The greater the level of academic freedom students are provided to create cross-curricular infographics on atoms, elements, compounds and molecules the greater the likelihood students will remember the chemistry content. When students are provided increased levels of academic freedom, learning becomes more memorable, expressive and meaningful.
Neon and Glass
This is a wonderful field-based research project students engage with local businesses regarding information on neon and glass production. Students communicate with companies and interview a shopkeeper, manager, or business owner about gas laws, general chemistry, safety questions, etc. about neon and glass. Chemistry and art students are also provided a demonstration on the art of glass blowing from a glass-blowing artist and relate what they learned from the businesses on neon sign production.
Chris
Referenced links and documents:
Art and Chemistry: a Source of Mutual Inspiration and Symbiosis, Creating Conditions for Deeper Learning in Science, European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN), International Conference, June 2019
Bad Boy Boogie by Angus young Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott
Creative Chemistry: Sylvan Hills Teachers Mix Science with Art, Stacey Bowers, THEA Foundation
Designing STEAM for Broad Participation in Science, Carsten Conner et al, Creative Education
D’ton Nkwo Wyh by Chris Dignam
Interdisciplinary Course Bridges Chemistry and Art, Amy Pavlak and Eric Sloss, Carnegie Mellon Today
Teaching Chemistry as a Liberal Art, Dudley Herschback, Asociation of American Colleges and universities
The Art and Science of Light: An Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Experience, P. Bopegedera, Journal of Chemical Education
