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The Art Festival
the steam Expo
Above is an image of the poster that I made for the expo. I spent about ten hours working on painting it and drawing each component. I included information about why art is important in the field of science, similarities between artists and scientists, and why art education is beneficial to students.
The STEAM Expo is an annual Santa Susana High School event that showcases, to the community, the work of students in the departments of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Though this event includes art, art displays must prove to have a scientific component, so the event is primarily focused on the STEM aspects. I chose to sign up to host a booth at the STEAM Expo because there are often not very many booths related to art and I wanted to make sure that it was known that art has made significant contributions to science. I also took this event as an opportunity to promote the Art Festival as a place where guests can see the power of art in action.
During our time at the STEAM Expo, Sam and I both explained our booth to our guests. I began by explaining my choice of Leonardo DaVinci and Charles Darwin as examples for artists in science. DaVinci's work in anatomical drawings contributed to much of what we know about the human body today. His work also leads us to see the importance of diagramming in classes such as anatomy. It is more effective towards fully understanding the course material if a student makes his or her own charts and diagrams accompanied with the textbook information. Diagramming on our own helps us make connections that we may not have seen by simply reading material or looking at someone else's diagrams. I
referenced Charles Darwin for similar reasons. He used observational drawing in his fieldwork in order to better understand the organisms that he was studying and translate what he was seeing to the rest of the world around him. His findings, most notably, contribute to the idea of natural selection.
After explaining what is known about the work of these two scientists and how what they do can help students learn in the classroom, I explain that Albert Einstein is one notable figure in science who understood the importance of art as a component of being a scientist. I described his quote, which addresses that the greatest scientists are artists as well, and then I explain three of the similarities between scientists and artists. We both appreciate the beauty of the world around us, share an interest in creating something new, and share a curiosity of the unknown.
The final points that I made to our guests are that an education in the arts improves the lives of students
because students who participate in the arts are four-times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, they have a higher awareness of self, and they can better communicate verbal and nonverbal ideas. I then explain that by attending the Art Festival later this month, they can see the power of art in action at our gallery of student artwork.
Participating in the STEAM Expo allowed me to further reinforce the ideals of the Art Festival by explaining to the community the benefits of art in the development of students and how they learn. These ideas are also components of my believes surrounding my interest in art therapy.
Our table display included books with anatomical diagrams in order to show their utility for understanding the human body without having to have one for dissection. We also had a hand-painted field journal that I made for my AP Environmental Science course last year that explained the plants and animals living on the hill behind my house. Finally, we had miniature copies of our Art Festival flyer so that we could pass them out to members of the community.
This image shows our entire table display at the event. The papers attached to the wall to the right of the poster are drawings made by those who came by to visit our booth. We wanted to include an interactive component where people could draw something and show that they can be an artist in science as well.
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