Little Leonardos in the 21st century are thinking about climate change( 1st activity)
Reading fables of Leonardo Da Vinci are working on the sustainability of water-see-oceans the effects of climate change on the sustainability of our planet’s species and how water maintains climate stability on earth. We want to combine science with art so we meet not only scientists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Democritus, and Luke Howard but also remarkable painters like Miro, Constable, and of course Leonardo Da Vinci.
Weather detectives (2nd activity)
We follow the steps of Luke Howard, the man who named the types of clouds, we look for his books in Europeana and we create meteorological instruments like him, we collect the meteorological data of our town and make diagrams. We meet Constable, the painter who was inspired by Luke Howard and drew paintings with all types of clouds. We draw our paintings with clouds like Constable.
Disciplines involved: Science, Environmental Studies, Maths, Art, Music, Reading
The expected role of Art & Science: We seek to create an interdisciplinary approach that combines science, maths, reading, music, and especially art in our educational programming. We believe that a combination of these areas can enhance student understanding, creativity, and interest. By uniting science-reading and the arts, we create an environment that promotes critical skepticism, exploration of new ideas, and expressiveness. We seek ways to supplement education with activities that integrate scientific inquiry with the creative process of art, providing a rich educational environment that encourages personal growth and multicultural understanding. Children recall previous knowledge, and playfully acquire new knowledge, in a way appropriate to their age, by creating weather diagrams, writing poems about weather, meeting Luke Howard the scientist who named the types of clouds, and Constable the painter who was inspired by Luke Howard investigations about the clouds, take initiatives to disseminate the messages about the climate change they want to communicate, cultivate their imagination and create works of art.
Link with Climate topic
The scenario encourages the combined use of science (weather phenomena, types of clouds, and climate change- Zeus, the ancient divine who carried the rain to people) and creativity to create a multidimensional work, as Da Vinci did by combining art, science, and ingenuity. The process involves researching and discussing the global crisis of climate change, challenging students to be curious and explore the deeper issues of the global problem. They understand that small steps will achieve the desired results by starting with the school community and also by taking the messages to our students’ families.
So in the end the children prepared a campaign to inform the rest of the school’s students about two environmental problems, climate change and what people can do to reduce its effects of it. They made comics and constructions to motivate the rest of the students to be aware of the above environmental issues.
Teaching resources-produced material
Information-resources
Scientix platform, Esa kids, Nasa kids, you tube, Europeana, Weather Wiz Kids, Met Office Kids, NASA Climate Kids, The Weather Channel Kids, National Geographic Kids
Produced material
- 2nd t station learning material, video 1,
- Using creatively the Europeana platform, eBook
- Luke Howard and the types of the clouds, eBook
- Science with our experiments, eBook
- Maths and diagrams for the weather, eBook
- Animals in danger, eBook
- Save the Earth, an online game
- Where are the animals? an online game
- Women in science, an online game
- Leonardo Da Vinci, ebook , fables with illustrations by the children
- Our magazine in the national school network, magazine
- Gallery with children’s works, What about Constable
- Greek project’s website, website
- External teachers’ work, presentation
Tools
videos, presentations, web.2.0 tools, websites
- We take photos of the sky with clouds and we notice the difference between them, we meet Luke Howard the man who named the clouds, we talk about the meteorological phenomena, we test students’ prior knowledge about these, and we create material to test our students’ knowledge at the end of the project.
- We imagine the trip of Leonardo Da Vinci to Greece and especially to Olympus to meet Zeus and to talk to each other about the meteorological phenomena, the clouds, and the rain.
- We listen and sing songs about the clouds and we try to write our poems.
- We create messages about climate change (videos and posters) and participate in a Scientix activity.
- We write a magazine so that the parents of the school the school community and the local community of our city can get to know our activities, and we create an online game.
- We met Luke Howard and Constable on the Europeana platform, we created meteorological instruments looking at Luke Howard’s meteorological instruments that we saw in his books that we found on the Europeana platform, and we saw Constable’s paintings and created an ebook of children’s paintings.
- We talk about the affection of climate change in weather, and we do our ecological footprint.
All the students of the school watched the videos that were created. The children create posters and construction with the types of clouds and they inform us about the results of our ecological footprint, we participate in the Scientix-Alliance Activity
Execution: 4 weeks( 2 hours per week)
Conclusions
It seeks to promote open thinking and encourages discussion and the exchange of ideas. The children propose solutions to spread the message to the rest of the school take the initiative in carrying out their board game and discuss environmental problems related to climate change. They discover the connection and interaction between science and art by trying to help them see the relationships between different ideas. They are assigned research and exploration, and curiosity is encouraged. You nurture an interest in discovering new knowledge. And you promote collaboration and the exchange of ideas between participants. Collective thinking can enhance creativity.
The scenario encourages the combined use of science (meteorological phenomena and especially the types of clouds- Luke Howard) and creativity to create a multidimensional work, as Da Vinci did by combining art, science, and ingenuity. The process involves researching and discussing the global crisis of climate change, challenging students to be curious and explore the deeper issues of the global problem. They understand that small steps will achieve the desired results by starting with the school community and also by taking the messages to our students’ families.
Students’ personal participation and expression in the creation of videos, presentations, artwork, and posters enhanced experiential learning, providing students with a comprehensive educational framework. The students were engaged in an exciting educational journey that combined art, science, and environmental awareness while also cultivating social skills.
Recommendations
The using of European platforms such as Scientix and Europeana allows you to have a huge repository of good practices for your future projects, empowering your professional development as a teacher.
The goodness of these kinds of projects is that increase not only the science knowledge of your students but also their empathy regarding environmental problems. We need active and sensitive future European citizens.
