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Art can illuminate and transcend academic, intellectual, and socio-cultural boundaries in a wide variety of educational settings. Art educators can unleash students’ self-expression, allowing them to tell their highly personal stories in ways that words alone may not. My research, and that of others, also demonstrates the art-making process can be highly effective in cultivating spatial reasoning skills essential to success in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) domains, and in creative innovation more generally.
One of my fourth grade students in the Bronx once said, “I never realized before how art was not just making things, but about learning and understanding stuff. How everything is connected.” Making visible the specific character and substance of those connections helps tie together the loose ends, reinforcing learning across disciplines. Links: Arts Integration: A Middle School Chair Design Project Everybody Dance! A Permanent Art Installation in a Bronx Middle School Teaching Graphic Narratives: Inspired by Anne Frank Art and Math at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Framing Student Success Project |
Students from the Framing Student Success project.
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