This course is particularly focused on helping you develop visual literacy skills, but all the college courses you take are to some degree about information literacy. Visual literacy is really just a specialized type of information literacy. The skills you acquire in this course will help you become an effective researcher in other fields, as well.

In this remixed lesson plan from “Art Show with the Masters” by Daniella Garran and Lisa Brizendine, students will research information on American Indian artists' lives and works. They will prepare works of art based on their understanding of the artists, their time and place in history (if applicable), and their works. Students then create an art show for to feature their artists and the artists' paintings/sculptures/artwork. Students, pretending to be artists, are interviewed on video alongside their artwork. This video will be shown as part of the exhibition.

Students learn how forces are used in the creation of art. They come to understand that it is not just bridge and airplane designers who are concerned about how forces interact with objects, but artists as well. As "paper engineers," students create their own mobiles and pop-up books, and identify and use the forces (air currents, gravity, hand movement) acting upon them.

This course serves as an introduction to the major artistic and architectural traditions of Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East. This course will explore how artifacts and monuments can be used to study the history and culture of the ancient world. It is divided into two units that chronologically focus on the art, architecture, and archaeology of each region. The first unit examines Ancient Egyptian tombs, monuments, and art from the Early Dynastic (c. 3100-2650 BCE) through the Roman (30 BCE- 4thcentury CE) periods. The second unit focuses on Ancient Near Eastern artistic and architectural traditions from the late Neolithic (c. 9500-4500 BCE) through the conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BCE) by Alexander the Great. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Identify major ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern architectural sites, monuments, and works of art; Identify the general characteristics of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern art and recognize the names and characteristics of the major art historical time periods of each region; Describe how art and architecture can be used to understand the politics, history, and culture of Ancient Egypt and the Near East; Explain ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern cosmology, conceptions of the afterlife, and kingship, as well as their relationship to architectural sites, monuments, and works of art. (Art History 201)

In this course, the student will study the art of Classical Antiquity. The different units of the course reflect the main chronological stages in art development in Ancient Greece and Rome, from the coming together of the Greek city-state and the emergence of ĺÎĺĺĺŤgeometric art (around 900 B.C.) to the fourth century A.D. shift that took place within Roman culture and art due to the growing influence of Christianity. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Explain why ancient Greek and Roman art can be studied together as ĺÎĺĺĺŤthe art of Classical Antiquity; Trace the timeline of major events in Ancient Greece and Rome; Link important developments in the history of Ancient Greece and Rome to specific geographical contexts; Explain how important historical developments and social-historical contexts had an impact on artĺÎĺĺÎĺs evolution in Ancient Greece and Rome; Identify the important stylistic and technical developments of Ancient Greek and Roman art; Discuss important artworks, presenting relevant information on each workĺÎĺĺÎĺs historical context and constitution; Discuss important artists in terms of the style of their work. (Art History 202)

This website has National Standard aligned lesson plans, courses art teachers (and others) can take for credit or professional development, and online magazine, videos, and art conferences.  
They cover art: advocacy, assessment, classroom management, creativity, technology, curriculum, differentiation, Instructional strategies, media, techniques, methods, approaches, organization, philosophies, and professional development.

Novel representations and diverse perspectives can reveal new insights into complex systems, and can support rich understandings of the world. In this activity, students will identify and analyze the choices artists and scientists make when creating representations of living or non-living natural objects. This process will help students recognize the potential and place for their own articulation of how the world works. After drawing from nature, students will reflect on the process of representing information, then compare their drawings with that of a 16th-century artist. Students will consider what is included and what is excluded, and hypothesize about larger contexts and systems.

The lessons in this issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom introduce the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, specifically their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. “Very little of the world’s flora has been fully studied,” says one Smithsonian botanist, “and time is running out.” In the first lesson, students gets to know six endangered plants. They examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of the plants as they consider this question: If a scientist can take a picture of a plant, are there advantages in having an illustration? They go on to consider some of the big questions that botanists themselves must ask: Which of these species are most in need of conservation efforts? Are any of these plants more worth saving than others?In the second lesson, the students try their own hands at botanical illustration, following the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. All that is required for the lesson are pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier.

Students are introduced to the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, and specifically to their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. Students examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of endangered plants and consider the conservation value of an illustration over a photographic image. In a second session, students try their own hands at botanical illustration and follow the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. Pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier are required.

Students use the robot paths they documented during the associated Robots on Ice Engineering Challenge activity to learn about and then make artwork. During the previous activity, students recorded the path of their robots through a maze in order to collect data during a remote research simulation. Now, they take a new look at the robot paths, seeing them from an art perspective as continuous line drawings. Students learn about Picasso’s famous works of art that used the same technique. Then they learn the artistic definition of a line and see examples of how it is used in different art pieces; they practice making continuous line drawings and then create sculptures of their drawings using colorful wire. A PowerPoint® presentation is provided to guide the activity.

Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment that illustrates the difference between viscosity and density. Later, students record the density rainbow with sketches and/or photography.

Review the environmental factors that make the Earth habitable and compare them to other worlds within our Solar System. Use creative thinking to design an alien life form suited for specific environmental conditions on an extra-terrestrial world within our Solar System.

Problem solving is often guided by disciplinary frames of reference, which can restrict our ability to see other possibilities. This exercise uses object-based learning to underscore the idea that there is more than one way of analyzing and knowing the world, and that through multiple ways of knowing, we develop more complex understandings and new solutions. Through the process of critique, an essential part of visual-arts pedagogy, students practice analyzing and reflecting both individually and in groups.

Students learn about applied forces as they create pop-up-books the art of paper engineering. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process.

This site provides descriptions and resources for pedagogy in the areas of: dance, music, theatre, and visual arts.

Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a lighter fluid. In both cases, they see and record beautiful fluid motion. Activities are also suitable as class demonstrations. The natural beauty of fluid flow opens the door to seeing the beauty of physics in general.

In this Illumination activity, students act as reporters at the Super Bowl. Students study four pictures of things that they would typically find at a football game: players, a scoreboard, a crowd, and a concession stand. Students are asked to create problem situations that correspond to their interpretation of each of the pictures. The lesson includes a student worksheet and extension questions.

Students' eyes are opened to the value of creative, expressive and succinct visual presentation of data, findings and concepts. Student pairs design, redesign and perform simple experiments to test the differences in thermal conductivity (heat flow) through different media (foil and thin steel). Then students create visual diagrams of their findings that can be understood by anyone with little background on the subject, applying their newly learned art vocabulary and concepts to clearly communicate their results. The principles of visual design include contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity; the elements of visual design include an awareness of the use of lines, color, texture, shape, size, value and space. If students already have data available from other experiments, have them jump right into the diagram creation and critique portions of the activity.

Maker Faire participants collaborate in ISKME's Design Lab, using digital stories and salvaged materials to design an innovative school of the future. The Design Lab features Makers Mauro ffortisimo Di Nucci's deconstructed piano and INKA Biospheric Systems' Vertical Garden; as well as Student and Teacher project examples that integrate art, science, sustainability, and green design inspire the creation of shareable open-source learning resources. This wiki page showcases photos and video from the Design Lab, open educational resources for teachers, and a step by step guide through the design process.