The 6th grade students in Ms. Spencers class created original artwork depicting their own interpretation of one of the Seven Principles of Ocean Literacy.
When an art teacher at Myrtle Grove Middle School in Wilmington, NC heard about the 2011-2012 Coastal America Ocean Art Contest, she saw it as an uncommon opportunity for her students to learn about the seven principles of Ocean Literacy in a creative way. She didn’t just assign her students an art project, she asked them to put words on paper before they put their brushes to canvas.
Sharon Spencer, a third year art teacher at the middle school focuses on coming up with interdisciplinary projects and assignments. For her sixth grade students, a group of 70, she created a curriculum revolving around the seven principles of Ocean Literacy (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/literacy.html). Using the Ocean Literacy pamphlet as a learning tool, the students worked in pairs to answer a series of 22 questions about the seven principles featured.
Afterwards, Ms. Spencer let them decide which Principle they wanted to express in a work of art. Many of the students applied their new found understanding of the ocean from the curriculum and their inspiration from the work of previous Coastal America Ocean Art Contest winners to create their own masterpieces.
Ms. Spencer chose to connect a curriculum to the art assignment because she believes that when students make a strong connection with the material, their work is stronger and more inspired. She anticipates that the students will not only gain more respect for the ocean, but also a better understanding of how they impact the ocean–and its inverse. “I wanted them to be passionate about what they picked, so the best way to do that is to let them choose what they were drawn to the most. They would draw about what they are most excited about, and be compelled about it,” she said.
The students’ entries will be submitted to the North Carolina Aquarium, the Learning Center nearest them. Participating Learning Centers will select their winning entries and submit them to the national contest. Coastal America’s guest judges will select the national winners from each age group in May. Winning entries will be displayed in several venues in Washington, DC, while winners and their chaperones will be invited to a special awards ceremony during Capitol Hill Oceans Week in Washington, D.C., June 2012.
