Why Art May Be Difficult to Integrate into High School Classes

While teaching high school science I was interested in how memory is enhanced by "doing" things and "integrating" things into more complex memory maps. It has been well documented that we can remember longer lists of things if we create a mental image that is either logical or somewhat funny. We are creating different associations that connect the things we want to remember. Art is one part of this memory process. If students make paper Mache planets, they will remember that planet better and may better associate it with respect to size, distance from the sun, and other characteristics.

Later when I began teaching some classes for pre-teachers at local universities I began to think about why some students love art being done in any classroom and why other students hate any form of art in another classroom. Many students who jump at the opportunity to do art in science, math, English etc. have ability in art and it seems they can produce something artistic about anything and with almost anything. In some cases it is very artistic, but in many cases it is "cute". This may help them in their memory process, but it does little to tell us why others dislike doing any form of art for example in science.

Finally, only after a few boys, said outl oud: "I can't do art.", that it began to become clear that what they were meaning was: "I can't do something that looks good enough to keep me from being laughed at by others in the class." Now I was finally able to make some progress. I had to find things that virtually anyone could do and would end up looking absolutely great.

I was teaching a unit about geology and went to a local "rock shop" and while looking for some interesting rocks to show in class, I saw some slices of rocks that were polished on both sides. They cost about $1.00 each, but were beautiful. I asked about getting a quantity discount and a "Teacher Discount" and was surprised that if I could purchase at least 100 I could get them fro $.50 cents each. I learned that a small metal eyelet could be glued to the back and a string or small chain could be attached and it could be made into a really beautiful necklace.

Since I had 130 students per day I needed at least that many, but figured I would need extra because some would probably look nicer than others. This was going to end up taking a fair amount of money so now it was back to the school. I went to the assistant principal first and asked permission to purchase the rock slices and other materials I would need and get paid back through school funds. I also asked if I could collect $.75 cents from each student and would document whatever was collected (receipts) and then put that back into the school fund. I stated that I would not deny a student from doing any project simply because they could not pay. Getting the school bookkeeper to train me in properly collecting money was easy, but it has unique problems and you absolutely must take care with this or it can really cause you problems. (that is another topic) If you use PTA (Parent Teacher Association) money you will have less problems on the use of the money. There is still documentation required but less.

To help I made a flyer to go home to the parents and asked them to donate either money (which had to be made out to the school) or to locate old, not valuable, chains that could possibly be used. I explain that we would be working with sliced polished rock and were going to identify the type of rock and its geologic characteristics and then make necklaces out of them. I also got permission to send out this flyer.

A whole box of suitable chain did come into the classroom, but some had difficult knots in them. About $80.00 did come in donations and the PTA allowed me to use about $200.00. The end result was enough to purchase everything required. On the day of the project everything was in place and I even had two parents come in to assist me. Every student made a necklace and they looked absolutely great. There was no possibility that they would not look great.

Every student wanted to do more such projects and they learned a little about geology at the same time. The key was to produce something that looked great. Now the trick was to find more such projects which can be done *future articles". I ended up visiting that rock shop every year and many times throughout the year. I even began using the same projects to work with the college students I was working with over the years. Best of all, I even made some for gifts.