LHMS+Documentation

Please include evidence of student achievement and/or learning as a result of the implementation of the TSIM lesson plan here. You may include:
 * pictures (paste them in, you may want to insert a table first to organize the photos)
 * video (upload to a service like YouTube or Vimeo and embed the player here - or link out to the site)
 * narrative (write about the lesson and your observations)
 * data (include pre/post assessment data to show the impact of your lesson)
 * other (include anything else you'd like to share here)

LHMS Uses Art Project to Boost Math Achievement At a time when teachers are focused on standards and testing, some research suggests that the arts can boost student achievement. Middle school teachers, Susan Wilson (art) and Dianna Williams (math), decided to put the research to the test. With funding from a grant awarded by the Mattress Factory Museum and Intermediate Unit I, Wilson and Williams developed and implemented lesson plans that connect math concepts with the visual arts. Lesson plans and pretests were designed to address math skills identified as areas of weakness based on data from 4-Sight testing. First students were introduced to installation art (site specific, three dimensional works designed to transform a viewer’s perception of space) and exposed to various installation artists and exhibits. Students began to recognize elements of geometry as they viewed the exhibits. Students were then challenged to use their creativity and math skills to create their own installation art piece.

Students were given 2-dimensional figures and used the figures to construct proportionally larger 3-dimensional pyramids, cubes, and rectangular prisms. Math calculations including measurement, radius, diameter, circumference, scale factor, ratios, proportions, cross products, and corresponding sides were required for completion of the construction. Color-line slides were then developed using acetate to illustrate parallel and perpendicular lines. Portraits of students were captured by a Smart Document camera and transferred and saved as a power point document. Students then arranged their 3-dimensional figures into an installation art piece. The portraits of the students were then projected onto their geometric shapes in the installation making them a part of the sculpture. Their portraits became distorted because of diffraction created by the edges of the geometric shapes. Their color-line slides were also projected into the installation to give an added dimension of color and line to the students’ sculptural arrangement. Math post tests revealed significant improvement. Wilson and Williams reported that the students were very engaged and enjoyed the project. This project proved that installation art can be utilized to teach and reinforce math skills in a unique and creative way. Special thanks are given to Mr. Larry Frank and Mrs. Carla Vernon for their assistance with the project.