Spotlight on Schools: First Creek Middle School
November 2011
Arts Impact’s Math Artistic Pathways project (MAP) has now completed the second year of its three year program. MAP expands on the Arts Impact elementary school model by developing a specific middle school visual arts/math infused curriculum. 6th, 7th and 8th grade math teachers at First Creek and Jason Lee Middle Schools in the Tacoma School District received training and support to infuse visual arts into their math curriculum.
In addition to learning and teaching visual arts-infused lessons, all participating MAP teachers had the opportunity for Community Partner visits to their classrooms. Architects from the Tacoma-based architectural firm BCRA Designs Rory Connally and Gail Merthvolunteered their time, spending an entire school day in multiple 8th grade math classes with teachers Alaina Hellum-Alexander and Lisa Hertzog at First Creek Middle School.
Prior to this visit, students had designed and created drawings of architectural cityscapes as part of an arts-infused math unit. The professional architects then responded to the students’ projects and how their work relates to the real world of architecture, opening up a conversation with students on some of the real-life applications of math and art.
Arts Impact Program Director Sibyl Barnum is grateful to the contributions these professionals have made to student learning:
“The community partners helped students recognize the relevance of math and visual art in the real world. Having a professional architect respond to the students' creations and explain how what the student has done is the same as what architects do, using the same vocabulary words and concepts, is a powerful learning experience.”
While 8th grade students focused on architecture, 6th grade students made Anibots, converting 2-D nets into 3-D shapes and then creating a fanciful three-dimensional creature. To properly construct the Anibot, students also had to calculate surface area and volume. 7th grade students constructed kites, first designing an isosceles triangular shaped kite and then enlarging it to scale. After applying a triangular sail, perpendicular support beams, and parallel tails, students were able to fly their kites!
In addition to teaching these arts-infused lessons, MAP teachers from both First Creek and Jason Lee brought students to the Tacoma Art Museum to study math in professional works of art. Sixth grade teachers Abid Hussain and Valentina Klishta also invited an Arts Impact Dance Artist Mentor to First Creek to work with their students to use movement to reinforce the math concepts.
Arts Impact Program Coordinator Meg Babcock is proud of the work the MAP teachers are doing:
“I would like to recognize these teachers who have allowed their students the opportunity to experience math through creative pathways.”
Architect Rory Connally and Gail Merth, partner in the Tacoma based architectural firm BCRA, talks with 8th grade students of math teacher Alaina Hellum-Alexander at First Creek Middle School.
Rory Connally responds to a student's art work
Rory Connally and Gail Merth show students how to use a software program to design and create their own buildings.
Student designs his own building using a software program demonstrated by Rory