Durham District School Board
An Outbreak of Art and STEM
Students Learn How Art and STEM are Connected
Grade 8 students from Colonel J.E. Farewell PS enjoyed connecting science and art at the Media Frenzy STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) & Art Workshop, hosted by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG) in Oshawa on January 16th.
“This exhibit is the first of its kind where we look at art and science combined. It looks specifically at contagious diseases and tries to instill in the students the idea that media sometimes can skew people’s perceptions of contagious diseases,” says Jennifer Welch, who is the Family and Learning Lead at RMG.
The day was filled with activities such as a guided tour of the exhibits, one of which symbolized the Ebola outbreak. Healthy cells hung from the ceiling in transparent discs filled with salt, while the infected cells had streaks of red mixed in. Another installation was an entire wall that featured a blown-up image of blood cells of people in the same family. There was also a video presentation, the students discussed how the media impacts the news of outbreaks, and they created their own artwork to visually demonstrate their own interpretation of the connections.
Learning Opportunities
Art teacher Fiorella Dalfino wanted her students to walk away from this day thinking about how they can apply what they learned to their everyday life and how they can improve their initial thoughts about things whether it is through colour, light math or science. She was so happy they could visit RMG.
“It gives them the opportunity to think outside the box in an environment that they may not have come to before,” shares Dalfino. “It gives them the opportunity to see things differently.”
The students learned how to look at real-life outbreak events with an artistic eye and see how they can be connected to the media.
“It was very fun and the paintings were beautiful,” says Grade 8 student Zoloel G. “We are learning about science and blood cells.”
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