Vancouver, British Columbia

When grade 3 and 4 students at Graham Bruce Elementary took a meditative nature walk this spring, they closely inspected the happenings in their school yard using their five senses.  The children were exploring the connections between science, language arts and fine arts as part of a two-month project guided by the big question, "How are we a part of nature instead of being apart from nature?"

One of five pilot projects, ArtsSmarts launched the arts and environment initiative in the spring of 2009 in partnership with Evergreen.  Engaging students, artists, educators and environmental partners in collaborative and creative learning process, these projects sought to explore ideas about local landscape, local cultural traditions and local issues related to the health of nature in the community.

Our partner ArtsStarts in School brought artist Lori Weidenhammer together with teachers Jackie Osten and Grace Luis to collaborate on the development of multi-week lesson plans.

One week students walked around the school yard to collect fallen items like sticks, leaves, flower petals and pebbles that they later used to create works of ephemeral art.  Another week the students worked in small groups to research the importance of pollination and used this information write their own pollinator skits and cheers.

From working with an artist for the first time and experimenting with new ideas to acquiring new skills and seeing their works of ephemeral art exhibited at the ArtStarts Gallery in downtown Vancouver, the students were engaged in a rich learning experience that moved them beyond the walls of the classroom and out into the community.  Their inherent sense of curiosity and wonder was piqued and they  became active learners in the environment, science and art.

Find out which insect - bees or beetles - is the better pollinator.  View the project gallery and click on the images to read the captions.  Hint:  Look for the beetles rock poster.