Planting the Seeds of Science

Greetings- eco-feminist artist Sarah Crooks here calling out from the frontlines of art and science. I am the Teaching Artist at Hyde Grove K-2 Early Learning Center where in late January we  embarked on a ten week journey to illustrate the secret life of a bean plant. By exploring with all five senses we learn so much, and  so far things are growing well !

Did you know that ROOTS grow DOWN and SHOOTS grow UP ? Well, the first graders in Ms. Reed's class and Ms Machado-Corea's second graders do. In fact, they are learning how amazing plants really are through direct experience- touching,tasting,smelling,listening and SEEing. We are recording our explorations in personal nature journals. While writing, drawing and collaging we are building our collection of ideas to use in our final gigantic community watercolor mural. Look at what we have accomplished so far....

These first grade students in Ms Reed's searched for and collaged the cover of their journals with pictures of living things after we solved the mystery of the LIFE BOX. Did you know all life depends on sunlight, water, soil and air?

Little Isabelle and I liked gluing together.
     Next we learned about how water moves, sang a Waterspirit song, danced a little bit like a a floating gas and did our first illustration of the changing states of water which we depicted as a solid, liquid and gas. Then we planted giant speckled mystery seeds and watered them. Next we learned how to create categories based on size, texture and color  with other seeds just like grown up scientists.    
    Some seeds are BIG and some seeds are small, just like ideas ! So stay tuned to learn more about the amazing life of plants and how these students are gaining an edge by integrating art and science- hands on style  at Hyde Grove K-2 !