Looking into space - Integrating the curriculum - art project

Arts & Activities, May, 2003 by Craig Hinshaw

In 2000, two great projects came into alignment and looked toward space. The JASON Project presented a curriculum called, Going to the Extremes, with the main focus on the International Space Station. The Mars Millennium Project asked students to imagine and design a community on Mars in the year 2030. By dovetailing the wealth of information offered in each, I developed the following lessons that integrate art and science.

SPACE HELMETS: PAPER SCULPTURE Working in extreme environments, like in space on the International Space Station, requires special protective clothing. In first grade we looked at pictures of astronauts' helmets. I pointed out various features--headlamps, a camcorder, food and water tubes, a protective visor--and explained the purpose of each. For example, an astronaut working in his or her space suit for up to eight hours, would get hungry and thirsty, hence the food and water tubes.

The students would be creating their helmets from paper cylinders I had glued together before class. First I demonstrated how to push the point of the scissors through the paper to cut a hole to look out of. Next, the students cut away paper from the bottom, allowing the helmet to fit over their shoulders. Using small pieces of paper, I demonstrated folding and gluing techniques necessary to make helmet accessories--lights, a camcorder, etc. While the students worked, I circulated and taped orange cellophane to the inside of their helmet, creating a "protective" visor (see diagram 1).

As the students finished and put on their helmets, they seemed to instinctively know they had entered into the weightlessness of space. On their tiptoes, they "floated" about the extreme environment of the first-grade classroom, with arms extended.

LIFE-SIZE ASTRONAUTS: A LESSON IN FORESHORTENING How is it possible for fourth-grade students to draw life-size self-portraits that are dressed in the bulky suit of an astronaut, on a piece of 18" x 24" paper? By using the principles of foreshortening, of course. Foreshortening, developed during the Renaissance, would allow the students to compact their figure drawing while giving the illusion of hands and feet extending or receding into space.

To create the effect of foreshortening (see diagram 2), as step one, students traced their hands--thumbs pointing inward--on the top corners of the paper. Step two had them tracing their feet in the bottom corners of the paper. Most students took off a shoe to do this. Either the side or the sole of the shoe could be traced, with the toes pointed upward. The third step involved them drawing a large circle between the hands, at the top of the paper, which became the helmet.

Step four was fun and challenging, as students attempted connecting the parts, which demanded the use of foreshortening. Most of the students were familiar with the foreshortening, having seen it used in comic books. I showed how a forearm might be completely hidden behind an outstretched hand, or the lower half of the leg could be hidden behind the knee.

To keep their drawings accurate, students referred to pictures of astronauts. Arms and legs were "fattened" to show the space suit's protective layers. Some students drew their face inside the helmet; others colored the visor orange. The finished drawings were traced with a black marker and then cut out. I encouraged students to cut on the outside of the black marker line, providing a bold outline to the finished work.

Taped to a wall in the school, it appeared as if the whole class was playing, weightlessly, as if they were at recess in space. With all the information and support provided by projects like JASON and Mars Millennium Project, that may become a reality sooner than later.

A MARTIAN COMMUNITY: A YEAR-LONG CLASS PROJECT "Pasatta and Beyond" is a huge, inflatable "Martian" community made by our fifth-graders. It has five large, colorful geometric shapes, tall enough in which to stand.

Inflatable tubes, allowing passage from one to the next, connect the shapes. The inflatable is held up by a single square, box fan. Fifth-grade teacher, Jason Pasatta and I worked with the students most of the year planning the community, even though the structure was made in one day. Before the end of the year, every student at school Was given a guided tour by the fifth-grade.

Jason and I worked with the students in deciding that our community would have five components: living quarters, life support, research laboratory, government and entertainment area. The students wrote a charter and voted on a name, "Pasatta and Beyond." With the flight to Mars taking off in eight months, we would be there for an extended period. Therefore we would want an attractive habitat in which to reside. Five different geometric shapes (part of the fifth-grade curriculum) would form the architecture. Each shape would be constructed from clear and colored plastic.

On the day of construction, students were divided into five groups, each with parent helpers. Each group was assigned to make one of the geometric shapes and one connecting tube. Prior to construction, I had made paper patterns from rolled Kraft paper. The paper patterns were laid onto the clear, 4-mil polyethylene plastic, traced, cut out and taped together with clear 2-inch-wide tape. As the groups finished, the shapes and tubes were connected and inflated. Once inside, students sealed leaks, and cut away any excess plastic.