Meaningful Professional Development and

Innovative Teaching Strategies

Britta CulbertsonEinstein Distinguished Educator Fellow

Washington, DC, USA

Who am I?• High school teacher in 9th and

10th integrated science and visual arts

• 10 years of classroom experience

• Taught for 8 years at an arts-integrated high school in Seattle, WA

• Currently serving as an Einstein Fellow at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington, DC

What do I do at NOAA?

• Give presentations at NSTA, work at NOAA booth in exhibit hall

• Science on a Sphere (SOS) curriculum, teacher professional development, help organize network meeting

• Review space weather poster and curriculum

• Collect government resources for APES• And more!

Meaningful Professional

Development

India Summer Teacher Program• Short-term, exchange

opportunity for U.S. HS teachers of English, Mathematics and Science

• Collaborate and team-teach in your subject area with an Indian counterpart in a school in Kolkata

• Medium of instruction is English• U.S. and Indian educators to

work together on issues of mutual interest to their communities, schools and students

India Summer Program

KV Rangpuri, New Delhi

Eligibility:• U.S. citizen, full-time employee in a U.S. school• Minimum of 3 years teaching experience (at time of

application) • High school teacher of English, Math or Science

Details:• Length: ~5 weeks including orientation in Washington, DC• Price: Grant includes airfare, per diem, accommodations,

and shipping stipend for materials

This year’s timeline:• Application opens in fall, application deadline: January 7,

2013• Selection: February-April• D.C. Orientation: June 27-28, India: June 30-August 4• Website: http://www.americancouncils.org/program/44/ISP/

India Summer Teacher Program

Other PD Opportunities that Have Shaped My Teaching

• Toyota International Teachers Program in the Galapagos

• Local PD at NW Association for Biomedical Research – Bioinformatics in Seattle

• Worked on Powers of Minus Ten App

Innovative Teaching Strategies

What skills do scientists need?

Scientist’s Habits of MindMuseum of Paleontology (UC Berkeley) NSF

Funded Project called “Understanding Science” (2012)

• Question what you observe• Investigate further• Be skeptical• Try to refute your own ideas• Seek out more evidence• Be open-minded• Think creatively

Harvard’s Project Zero presents the following eight artist’s habits of mind (2003):

• Develop Craft• Engage and Persist• Envision• Express• Observe• Reflect• Stretch and Explore• Understand Art World

What are Artist Habits of Mind?

Research Supports Arts Integration

DeMoss and Morris (2002) discovered that arts-integrated lessons compared to non-integrated lessons promoted:

• intrinsic motivation• learning for understanding• greater problem solving opportunities

for students

Use Art To Articulate Science Concepts

#1

Use Art To Articulate Science Concepts

• Botanical illustrations• Physics of balance - mobiles• Design a species• Comic strips• Illustrated timelines and flowcharts• Analogy projects• Children’s stories• Illustrated field guides• Theater, vignettes, tableau• Infographics

Botanical Illustration

(and Invention)

Alexander Calder Inspired Mobiles

m1d1=m2d2

Design a Species with Adaptations

Newton’s Laws

In comic strip form

Illustrated Flow Charts

Cell City AnalogyStudents used favorite pop culture

topics to create analogies (e.g. LOST and Harry Potter’s Marauder’s Map)

Cell Factory Drawing

Fritz Kahn – Man as Industrial Palace

Translate Complex Ideas into Children’s Stories

Project-Based Learning:Field Guide Development

Galapagos Vignettes

Student defined roles and

student created props

Creating InfographicsRachel Zupke’s students created

infographics in Chemistry class on various topics with help from Kelsey King (a guest

graphic designer) and Suzi Tucker (chemist, graphic designer and set designer)

Photos courtesy of Rachel Zupke, The Center School

Infographics: Final Product

Images courtesy of Rachel Zupke, The Center School

• easel.ly• visual.ly• infogr.am• labs.good.is/• piktochart.com/

Online Infographic Generators

Infographic found on easel.ly

FREE!

Bring Science into the Art Classroom

#2

Bring Science into the Art Classroom

• Anatomical drawings• Drawings from microscope

images• Investigate artists’ depictions

scientific topics and environmental messages

The Science Skeleton Visits Art Class

Creating Abstract Art from Magnified Images

Japanese

Woodblock Prints

of Cells

Guest Artist: Francesca Lohmann

Use Art to Communicate About the Environment

Deconstruct and recreate through

trial and error

#3

Deconstruct and Recreate Through Trial and Error

• Use the design process to build a sculpture or mechanical object

• Create something from scratch – original ideas

• Create an emulation – work through the design process to recreate a piece– Find inspiration from TED talks,

Pinterest, Blogs, museum sites

A student was inspired by a TED talk and built his own beast using trial and error

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests

Emulation

Van Gogh, Starry Night

Collaborate to Create an Artful and Innovative

Lesson

#4

Collaborate with an Arts Instructor, Another Teacher, or a

Guest to Create an Artful and Innovative Lesson

• Art teacher teaches the techniques, science teacher provides content

• Can collaborate with the art teacher or a guest artist

• Have the art teacher teach the skill and use art students to teach your students

Arctic Information Poster Project: Reference Material

Kenojuak Ashevak

Theresa McFarland Mitzie TestaniUS Office of War, 1943

Trompe L’Oeil Sidewalk Art Teachers Wyn

Pottinger-Levy and Nathan Chipps used

art in math by using the

principles of geometry to

create perspective

drawings

Bonus: Integrate Science, Art, and Technology

• Bring in experts!• My students worked

with visualization expert Laura Lynn Gonzalez in the development of the app “Powers of Minus Ten”

• They were introduced to a career possibility in the process!

Challenges

“But I can’t draw”• Collage from magazines• Use Photoshop or clip-art• Cut construction paper shapes• Use word processor to print words• Have student propose an alternative

How Do You

Assess Art?

Arts Integration Research"Artist Habits of Mind." Minneapolis Public Schools (host Site): Artist Habits of

Mind. Project Zero of Harvard University, 2003. Web. 04 Feb. 2013. <http://opd.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads/T-ARTIST_HABITS_OF_MIND.pdf>.

DeMoss, K. & Morris, T. (2002). How arts integration supports student learning: Students shed light on the connections. Chicago, IL: Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE).

Grotzer, T.A. (1996). Math/Science matters: Issues of instructional technique in math and science learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Project on Schooling and Children, Exxon Education Foundation. [Essay #1: Learning the Habits of Mind that Enable Mathematical and Scientific Behavior].

Stevenson, L. & Deasy, R.J. (2005). Third Space: When Learning Matters. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.

Tishman, S., Jay, E. & Perkins, D.N. (1992). Teaching thinking dispositions: From transmission to enculturation. Theory into Practice, 32(3), 147-153.

Winner, E., Hetland, L. Veenema, S., Sheridan, K., Palmer, P., Locher, I. et al. (2006). Studio thinking: How visual arts teaching can promote disciplined habits of mind. New directions in aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, 189-205.

Thanks for coming!

Please contact me with any questions!culbertsonb@einsteinfellows.org