Revision of A River Runs Through It—A Watershed Art installation from Mon, 03/02/2020 - 13:01

Students work together to create an art installation of a watershed.

Recycled plastic serves multiple purposes in this project: it is reusable, economical material; it reflects the plastic waste that is in our water; and it shows students how much plastic we consume. Students create part of a waterfall, a fish, and a plant while learning about the different components of a watershed, including human impact on a watershed.

Objectives:

Students will create elements of a watershed using recycled plastics
Students will identify elements of human impact on a watershed
Students will create an art installation representing a watershed

Basic Lesson Outline:

Introduce the project—slide show
Students create a waterfall, plants, and fish
The watershed is assembled in the installation location

Art Supplies:

Watercolor paints
Acrylic paints
Modge podge
Paint brushes
Water cups for brushes
Scissors
Plastic bottles
Caps
Tissue paper
Glitter paint
Colored masking tape
Stapler
Glue guns
Hot glue
Plastic film / plastic bags
Hemp line / fishing line
Thumb tacks
Dowel or rod to hang the bottles
Wire
Wire cutters
Eye screws
Rope
Colored pencils
Drawing paper

Other Resources:

Visual examples of fish and plants created from plastic
Slide show to introduce project and related artwork (see outline at the end of the lesson plan)

Idaho State Learning Standards

Arts and Humanities: Anchor Standard 4: Convey meaning through the presentation/performance/production of an original work or unique interpretation of a work

Objective PR1.1 Combine knowledge and understanding from two or more disciplines to present/perform their original or interpreted works for an audience
Objective PR1.2 Convey meaning through their presentation/performance

LS2-MS Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

LS2-MS-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
Further Explanation: Emphasis is on cause and effect relationships between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources
LS2-MS-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
Further Explanation: Emphasis is on describing the conservation of matter and flow of energy into and out of various ecosystems, and on defining the boundaries of the system
LS2-MS-6. Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services
Further Explanation: Examples of ecosystem services could include water purification, nutrient recycling, and prevention of soil erosion. Examples of design solution constraints could include scientific, economic, and social considerations.

Academic Language:

Subject area language: watershed
Art language: art installation

Student Use of Vocabulary:

Students will use the words when creating their projects

Student Grouping:

Students will work individually or in small groups

Instructions

Day 1 – Introduction

Introduce the project with a slide show (see additional resources)

Questions to ask:

What do you see here?
How do you think the artist created their work?
Why do you think the artist made this piece?
Students can use the paper and pencils to sketch ideas for fish and plants

Day 2 – Artmaking

Discuss the significance of using the water bottles: their symbolism, recycling, the damage of plastic waste
Demonstrate how to string the water bottles together (follow printed instructions included below)
Working in small groups, students should string together their water bottles to create a waterfall

Day 3 – Artmaking

Demonstrate plant creation with the class. Show the students examples of plastic plants.
Students start creating their plants. Encourage the students to employ the three art techniques: cutting, gluing and embellishment.
When students have finished their plants, decide how they will install them in the installation location

Day 4 – Artmaking

Go over the fish creation with the class, showing the students examples of plastic fish
Students begin creating their own fish
Encourage the students to employ the three art techniques: cutting, gluing and embellishment
When students have finished their fish, hang them up in the installation location

Day 5 – Artmaking

Students should use this period to finish any uncompleted work.

Day 6 – Presentation

Finish installation of student fish and plants in the installation location
When the watershed is complete, the class should go into the hallway to look at and discuss their work

Questions to ask:

What did we create?
What did you learn?
What is a watershed? What is your role in a watershed?
How did you like doing an art project to learn about science?

Lesson Plan Video

Slide Show Outline:

Examples of tunnel books
Examples of vocabulary terms to be taught during the lesson
Examples of art terms to be taught
Short description of tunnel book directions

Tunnel Book Directions:

Create a plan for your tunnel book. Sketch ideas. What will each page show? How many pages will the book have?
Accordion fold two pieces of paper. The accordion pages should match. Depending on how the student glues the pages, each accordion valley will hold a page.
Draw the background first. Fold about half an inch back on each side. Glue the folded sides to the last fold of each accordion page.
Create additional pages, gently folding the paper to cut out a middle section. The middle sections will create the tunnel effect that the viewer will see when they look at the tunnel book. Glue these pages to the accordion folds, starting in the back, working towards the front of the tunnel book.

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Educator Resources

A River Runs Through It—A Watershed Art installation