Artist and Scientist Activity

Finding commonalities between science and art practices as the basis for STEAM activities

Grade Level Focus: Kindergarten - 5th Grade
School: Barack Obama School of Leadership and STEM
Teaching Artist: Alana Ferguson
Classroom Teacher: Paul Capps
Materials: materials: large paper for group brainstorming, small paper for individual drawings, drawing utensils
Lessons: 1
Unit Connections: All Units

Summary: Find commonalities between science and art practices.

Lesson Sequence:

Brainstorm a list of attributes of scientiest and artists.
Draw a scientist on one side and an artist on the other side of a folded sheet of paper.
Discuss the list of practices from NGSS Practices and the National Core Arts Standards to show the similarities of how scientists and artists work, and how STEAM activities are what artists and scientists do.

Next Generation Science Standards:
NGSS Practices

National Arts Standards: See National Visual Arts Standards to align to your grade level for these Anchor Standards:

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Artist Connections:
Anicka Yi
Maria Sibylla Merian
Aviva Rahmani
SymbioticA
George Steinmann
Rocky Mountain Land Library
Sound Sculpture

Additional Resources: National Core Arts Standards NGSS PracticesThe Similarities Between Art and Science.
What does a scientist look like? Scientist Tools and Types of Scientists
What Does a Real Artist Look Like?
What Do Artists Actually Do?

Work examples: (examples include additional documentation teaching artists Neil Vendenbergh and Niema Qureshi with classroom teacher, Francesca Wessely)