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Students Visualize Watershed
By Stephen Poklemba, Wood River Middle School and Katelyn Foley, Sun Valley Center for the Arts
The Marriage of Art and Science
Visit almost any natural science museum and one can only marvel at the beauty of the displays. Marvelous minerals, the fantastic fur of fauna, the unbelievable sizes of dinosaur skeletons, the pigmented plumage of our avian populations and the awe inspiring vision of a nebula a mere 1500 light years away. This is nature’s art gallery.
The marriage of art and science is a natural. The best way to learn and understand science is to see it. The 8th graders at Wood River Middle School went one better and created the vision of a watershed made entirely out of manipulated plastic. The result is an installation that would be the envy of any museum or art gallery.
With the help of Sun Valley Center for the Arts, students learned to paint, cut, fold and string plastic bottles to create a complete watershed.
The concept of a watershed is itself confusing. We all live in a watershed and this is defined as an area of land that drains all the streams and precipitation to a common outlet such as a river, a lake, bay or any point along a stream channel. The boundaries are the ridges that separate the water from different drainages.
The Earth Science classes studied water, made paper watersheds and tried to wrap their heads around the influence humans have on water. What came out of this was the incessant use of plastics and the resulting impact. Enter Susie and Erikka who lead students on an artistic journey with plastic bottles of all types.
Day one was stringing together water bottles to create the top of the watershed represented by a plastic waterfall that starts over 18 feet up. Even higher are the raindrops and snowflakes that feed the waterfall.
Day two was for creating the riparian area (vegetation on edges of a river or stream). This needed a bit of creative instruction that was obviously successful as seen in the myriad plants and flowers that jut out from the walls of the 8th grade hallway.
The next days were for finishing the plants and constructing the fish that swim in our rivers. The students outdid themselves in creating colorful, flamboyant and wild looking fish that hang from the ceiling for over 90 feet. The result is a feast for the eyes and was described as “delicious” but can only truly be appreciated with a walk through this thought provoking installation.
Stop by the middle school and be dazzled by this successful marriage of art and science.
Sun Valley Center for the Arts is proud to share photos and video of our latest Classroom Enrichment Project: a watershed installation complete with rain and snow, a rushing waterfall, unique plants and fish, all created from recycled plastic by the 8th grade class at Wood River Middle School. Approximately 240 students, the whole 8th grade, participated in creating this amazing and creative art installation, while learning more about their impact on our local watershed.
The Classroom Enrichment program focuses on integrating art into core curriculum supporting student learning in the classroom and inspiring and providing skills for teachers to use the arts in their practice. Center art educators work collaboratively with classroom teachers to co-develop and co-teach an element of curriculum. This is one of several projects that is realized each school year.
The Classroom Enrichment program is sponsored by Wendy and Alan Pesky with additional support from Albertsons.