Earth Science Week Classroom Activities

No Child Left Inside Activity

Earth Science Art

Grade Level: K-8 Earth Science and Art

Activity Source: Developed by the American Geosciences Institute for the first No Child Left Inside event in 2008.

AGI logo multicolored with tagline connecting each, science, and people

 

Background

Half the fun of Earth science is experiencing the aesthetic beauty of the natural world. Our appreciation of nature can be enhanced by understanding the geoscience that underpins natural systems and processes. In this activity, students are invited to integrate scientific understanding with artistic expression.

Materials

  • Selected art materials, such as sculpting clay, colored pencils or pens, paints and paintbrushes, paper, etc.

Procedure

  1. Find a place outdoors to work. Collect your art materials, and pick a subject for your artwork. Which part of the scenery will you work on?

  2. Before beginning your picture or sculpture, talk about what you see and what you plan to create. Why did you pick that part of the outdoors? Does it look exciting or interesting?

  3. Talk about what you’ve learned in Earth science about what is around you outside. Why does the look like it does? Is it flat or hilly, bare or green with plants, worn away by water or ruffled by wind?

  4. Maybe you’ve chosen to focus on a rocky outcrop, a stand of trees, or an area with lots of birds. How does what you know about Earth science help you understand what you see? Do you see rock layers you might not have noticed before? What kinds of trees and birds do you see?

  5. Consider what type of artwork would best represent the area you are observing. Think about the materials you will use and what natural resources they are made from (like many paint pigments being made from minerals), as this is another way to relate your art to the environment and Earth’s systems.

  6. Draw, paint, sculpt — create! Practice your observation skills by putting lots of details into your artwork so that another geoscientist who has never seen this area before would be able to find and recognize it using only your art as a guide. When you’re finished, hang your art in the school for others to see!

 

Standards and Connections

NGSS

  • Disciplinary Core Ideas: ESS2.A: Earth’s materials and systems; ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems
  • Science and Engineering Practices: Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
  • Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns; Structure and function

 

Additional Standards

  • National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards: 1. Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

 

Sustainability Connections

  • SDG 4: Quality education– Integrates creativity and science for deeper learning. The activity also values seeing the world from different perspectives and making use of students’ varied abilities and interests.

 

  • Earth Day Gallery: Art that Educates

    • Check out the posters in this gallery that you can hang in your classroom or that can inspire you and your students to design your own educational posters!

  • Upcycle Projects

    • Have students consider how they might use objects and materials from home in their Earth Science Art projects.